XMEN: Evolution: Arrival
by Epsilon Indi
Summary: Who said anything about normal? A new year, new faces, new romances, and new enemies await our favorite X-teens. But nothing can prepare them for the Arrival... Kurtty, X-23/OC, T for language. I do not own the X-Men. It starts out short- gets much longer
1. Trouble

X-MEN: EVOLUTION

ARRIVAL

(A/N: What's up y'all? This is my first fic, so I hope it's good. It's post- end of the season, so don't be surprised when Magneto is acting helpful. Look for Kurtty, A tad of romy if your looking for it, and X-23xOC. There's like three Ocs in this story, I'm a create- a –char a holic! Jeez, long authors note. Sorry! Oh, and I DO NOT OWN X-MEN EVOLUTION, I DON'T I PROMISE!)

Kurt looked up and groaned. Not for any reason in particular, mind you, he just felt dismal. A carefree young man with shoulder length light blonde hair surfer style and pale skin (COVERED in freckles) trotted into the room messing with what looked like a small ball of light with a nexus of energy swirled around it. Kurt looked up as he entered the room, his gold eyes squinting at the sudden admittance of light to the dark room. Kurt yelped "Ngaaah! Hey! Put zhat out vill you!? I'm blind!" He put a tridactyl hand to his forehead and fell off the couch. One of the new residents, Collin Ambercend had the ability to generate bright orbs of light with psychokinetic energy. They didn't do much but they were really, REALLY bright. Collin blinked and the light went out. "Oh, jeez. Sorry Kurt, I didn't see ya there." Kurt rubbed his eyes, grimacing. Something told him this would be a long weekend. It was going to be the fourth of july weekend and everyone except Scott, his foster sister Rogue, his best friend (And longtime crush) Kitty Pryde, Collin and of course, Ororo Munroe (AKA Storm), Hank McCoy (AKA Beast), and Logan (Wolverine) with X-23 (who usually stayed in her room in the subbasement anyways). Kurt 'ported to the kitchen, where one of his teachers, Logan, was sitting, eating a sandwich. "Bored elf?" He asked, looking up at the TV boredly. Kurt merely nodded and looked in the fridge. He had a feeling that this was going to be an uneventful vacation.

* * *

Miles away, in the middle of Bayville Town Hall a vote was going underway. The judge coughed into his hand. "All in favor?" Twenty hands went up. Only two people opposed. "Ah… the majority rules." This was going to be a bad week for mutantkind.

* * *

And in one of the adjoining buildings to the town hall a young man named Johnathan Iversen was settling into his new home. "Well... it's not the white house but it'll do." John sighed, spreading out the air mattress and inflating it as much as he could. He wrapped his coat a little tighter around himself and tried to get some sleep. He had school in three days. As he lay there his head throbbed suddenly, a characteristic of one of his severe attacks that he got every once in a while. He cried out, gripping his head and rolling sideways off the mattress. An hour passed. Sometimes his attacks lasted five minutes, sometimes they lasted three hours. Once it ended he grimaced, rolled back onto the mattress and sunk into a fitful sleep.

* * *

The steel arm sailed past Kurt as he leapt sideways with a yelp, rolling to his faun feet and 'porting to Scott. The danger room sessions had been growing steadily shorter as the fourth approached. Scott blew a bot in half and Kurt teleported to Kitty, who was having trouble shaking a laser arm, and tackled her out of the way. "Need some help, katschen?" Kurt joked. He rolled to his feet again and Kitty stood up and phased through a tentacle with a claw that was coming right at her. She stuck her tongue out at him. "I don't like, always need your help yaknow?" Kurt grabbed her again and teleported as yet another volley of lasers exploded around her. When they reappeared, the arms powering down, Kurt flashed her a fanged grin, running a tridactyl hand through his blue hair. "Hah. Vell you might like to make a point of it every once in a vhile." Kitty shoved him as they walked out of the Danger Room. Kurt and Kitty laughed all the way to their respective rooms, and Scott made his way to the showers. They had no idea that something was coming, something that may well change their lives forever.

(Well, that's the end of that chapter. I know it kinda got off to a slow start but I'll be fast to update... and it won't be so short next chapter, either.


	2. Democracy

(A/N: All right, time for chapter two. This one'll be much longer, trust me!)

Kurt yawned as he plopped down on his bed for the night. He had thought about staying up with the others to watch the fireworks but he was too tired. Thoughts ran through his head, the same ones that always did. Fear of being revealed in school, or out in public at all, fear of Kitty finding out how he felt about her… wait what? Why was he thinking about THAT? Sure, they were both recently single, but he needed to keep his head in the right place. Kurt shook his head, grimacing into his pillow, and was close to drifting off to sleep when he heard a loud shout from downstairs. "SON OF A-" Kurt vanished downstairs and ran full tilt into the livingroom. There was a gaping hole in the TV, and Scott's glasses were smoking slightly. Bobby was sprawled across the couch with his arms over his head. Collin sped into the room, tripped over Jamie (Who was cowering in the doorway) and fell into a sea of identical children. Kurt blinked, openmouthed, as Kitty ran into the room, tripping over a Jamie's arm and slamming into Kurt. They fell to the ground with Kitty on top of him. Kurt's heart shuddered and came to a halt for a second. His mind was screaming at him to move, before either of them did something the other forgot. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds (Could have been four hours for all Kurt knew), and then Kitty cleared her throat. "Uhm… like, what was that huge boom that I heard?" Scott jammed his glasses back on his face and stalked out of the room. Rogue arrived seconds later, looking annoyed until Scott shoved past her. "What's lodged up his butt?" She grumbled with her southern belle accent. Bobby sat up. "It's… The city just put out a new edict… All seniors known as mutants will have to retake their senior year… that means Scott has to go back to school.. Jean too." Kurt was stunned. "Vhat would possess them to do zhat?" Bobby grimaced but shook his head. "No idea." Collin sighed, waving a flyer. "I know. 'Senator' Kelly put the idea in their heads."

* * *

Kitty put a hand to her mouth. "What? Like, Kelly's running for SENATOR now?!" Rogue growled audibly. "That low- lahfe scum lickin'!!" Kitty giggled at her accent combined with the southern insults. Kurt gave a grim smile. "Anyone vant to go calm Scott down?" A scared Bobby, ten Jamies, one Kitty, one light manipulator and one southern belle all shook their heads in unison. Kurt sighed. "Fluch… Ich muss alles um hier tun!" (1*) He growled and 'ported away. After several 'ports (And one close encounter with an agitated Logan… "Watch yer step, elf, or you'll be scrubbing the X-Jet for a week!") Kurt found Scott in the lowest level of the Subbasement. Kurt landed next to Scott and crossed his legs. "Vant to talk about it, mein freund?" Kurt asked. Scott turned to him. "It's… It's so goddamn unfair!!" How COULD he… he… even SUGGEST it?" Scott snarled and fired an optic blast at the ceiling. Kurt yelped and shied away. "Calm down, Scott! It's not all ZHAT bad is it? After all, you've still got me to chill vith!" Kurt pointed at himself with his thumbs and smiled winningly. Scot snorted amusedly. "Maybe… Jean's not gonna be to happy either."

* * *

As it turned out she wasn't. On Sunday, when she got back from her trip to her parents there was a three minute period in time where everyone shifted their feet uncomfortably. When Scott finally worked up the nerve to tell her he was rewarded (They all were…) By a telekinetic wave and a sonic scream that sent them all tumbling away and Jean stormed off with a furious 'I need to find the professor'. Kurt stood dumbstruck for the second time in as many days. Kitty walked to his side. She giggled, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Hello… earth to fuzzy? Like, get a grip, elf!" Kurt shook his head. "Sorry. I vas… elsewhere." Kitty giggled again, grabbing his hand and yanking him away to do god knew what. Kurt smiled as she yanked him outside. He pulled his image inducer on as she led him into town. "Like, let's go to Burger Bomb! That always makes you feel better." Kurt was about to object. He wasn't feeling anything other than happy. But when he thought about it… he _was _feeling a little depressed. Probably on account of- A loud boom cut off his thoughts. A column of smoke was rising from downtown… where the vote had been cast to send all mutants just out of high school back to repeat their senior year. Kurt and Kitty both looked at each other and knew before the other said what they would say before they said it. Kurt and Kitty both ran off to the source of the smoke. As they arrived Kurt looked up at the building that had caught on fire, luckily not the state building, but one near it. Kurt was instantly entranced by the dancing flames. He fell to his knees, vague memories of being chased echoing in his ears. Kitty frowned, kneeling next to him. "Kurt? Are you ok? There may be people in trouble in there." Kurt shook his head. "Ach… my apologies, katzchen." He looked to her. "Ready?" Kitty nodded and put her hand on his shoulder, and together they ported into the burning building.

* * *

John swore. "Goddamn it!" He stomped furiously on the matress that had caught alight. His vision blurred as he felt the telltale symptoms of his illness set in. He gasped in pain, falling sideways onto the ground as the flames closed in on him. Before his vision cut out a blue demon appeared before him in a shroud of sulfuric smoke.

"Quickly katzchen, before he suffocates!"

"I've got it, Kurt, make sure there's nobody else in the building."

"Ja." And with a 'Bamf' the blue demon was gone again. John looked upwards as his attack began to end. He vaguely felt himself being pulled to his feet. "Like, come on, man! It's time to get outta here!" John pushed away from her. "I- I'm fine." He coughed hard into his hand and staggered for the door. The ceiling caved in, and he yelped and waited for his imminent doom.

* * *

Kurt reappeared in time to see Kitty phasing the guy they had found earlier through the ceiling. Kurt yelped and leapt away from a piece of falling debris. "Keety!" She phased out with the guy in tow, dropping him unceremoniously and kneeling over to catch her breath. Kurt hurried to her side. "Keety, are you allright?" He asked, his german accent thickening in his worry. She waved him off. "Like, I'm fine." She looked up and her eyes widened. "Kurt, LOOK OUT!" There was a loud crack and the beam holding the rest of the ceiling up collapsed. They both cringed when the guy they'd saved tackled them into the hall before they could be buried. Kurt grimaced and managed to turn on his image inducer before he slumped against the wall in exhaustion, pulling Kitty closer to him to protect her from the flames without realizing it. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was a yellow and black garbed man and a small girl in a leather battlesuit running towards them, claws unsheathed.

(And that's the end of the second one, folks... a bit more action this time. Agh, I'm sorry. I need to make these lots longer, I know... Reviews? Anyone?)


	3. Beginnings

(A/N: Hey, Nightcrawler's shadow, thanks for the support. And trust me, there'll be much more fluff AND action to come! Also, pop quiz: In the Marvel Universe, Logan and Psylocke have a child codenamed what?)

Kurt awoke to look up at the familiar too- harsh lights of the infirmary. He looked over to the bed next to him and his heart ached. Kitty, a bandage taped to her left temple. Kurt felt like he'd eaten raw fish. "Ugh… Mein kopf…" He rolled to the other side. The guy from the apartment. Kurt scooted away from him. "Scheisse!" Beast loped into the room. "Kurt, are you ok?" Kurt nodded then pointed to the boy in the bed next to him. "Vhat is HE doing here? He nearly got us killed!" And then saved our lives… Kurt sometimes wished he could bite his tongue. Beast gave him a look over his glasses that said he knew what Kurt was thinking… sometimes Kurt thought that Jean and the professor werent the only psychics in the mansion. "Herr McCoy… Is Keety allright?" Beast nodded to him. "She's fine, Kurt. All she needs is some rest. I don't know how this guy managed to tackle you both out of the way though… he's got a severe case of neurodegenerative Embolitis… it causes severe bouts of pain that have been eating away at his nervous system for the past five years." Kurt's heart sank. "Vill he be ok?" Kurt asked. Beast nodded. "He seems to be dealing rather well." Kurt blinked. "Do you know his name?" Beast shook his head. "He's got no registered last name… he's apparently an orphan, nearest the proffessor can tell. Been roaming… First name's John though. He's going to Bayville this year." Kurt frowned. "Vhen vill he vake up?" Beast shrugged. "Dunno. But we're dropping him off at a hotel now." And with that he delicately lifted the boy from the bed and carried him out the door. As he left Kurt couldn't help but think that Mr. McCoy was hiding something from him. Kurt spent the next day by Kitty's bedside. Her injuries were a bit more severe than his, and she had to stay in the infirmary for that entire day. Kurt didn't mind. They laughed the entire day. The only tension came when Kitty fell asleep with her head on his shoulder. Kurt turned such a deep shade of blue he felt he could melt into the shadows in the infirmary. The next day brought release from the sterile prison. Unfortunately, it was out of the frying pan into the fire. School was starting again…

* * *

John pulled his pack a little tighter onto his shoulder nervously. He had dismissed the events of the previous day as a bad dream. Luckily the money he had pickpocketed over the past few weeks in Bayville, and the leftovers from what he had saved up after his judo lessons were enough to get him a room in the hotel he had woken up on the doorstep of. He was wearing a black shirt with a smiley face on it, and faded jeans. His worn sneakers were taped together with duct tape. As he walked into the hall, he looked at his skin with a frown. Seemingly overnight it had turned steel grey, and these weird markings had appeared, like what you would see on a microchip. They ran to a spot on his back where a strange sheen had appeared inside a particularly large circle. Also… he fidgeted uncomfortably at some of the angry stares people were giving him. His eyes had turned a strange, oyster-shell array of blue, pink and purple, and they sparkled iridescently when they caught the light. He remembered being carried out of the burning building… by a teenager, probably his own age… He zoned out thinking about her and ran into a kid. A hard shove and the words 'Mutie!' were enough to give him second thoughts about school. He wasn't a mutant… was he? He turned into his class and was met by a wall of unfriendly glares. Yup, this was going to be a positively GREAT day!

* * *

X-23 looked up from her textbook boredly as a student entered the class and was met by a silence broken only by someone dropping a pen. X-23 (Or Dani, as Logan and the professor had named her in lou of her operation number) recognized him instantly as the kid her and Logan had saved from the building fire the other night. She smirked. He had acquired some new looks to go with his bad luck. She suddenly realized that the only chair open was the one next to her in the back and rolled her eyes, groaning inwardly. As he plopped down next to her, jammed his hands in his pockets, and leaned back in his chair she hoped to holy heaven he didn't recognize her. Unfortunately God must have been bored, because at that exact moment he looked over at her, and surprise etched across his features. "Hey… you're the girl from the building fire!!"

* * *

Kurt ignored the angry stares he received from roughly half the kids in his own first period class. Kurt took his usual chair, and began taking notes, flashing a spock-wave at the kid next to him. The period droned on, and his teacher shot glares at him whenever he got the opportunity. Other then that the period passed without any incidence. Kurt walked from his classroom once the bell rang and looked around for Kitty… she usually waited for him. She came up behind him, wrapping a hand over his eyes. "Guess who?" She whispered in a singsong voice into his ear. Kurt's tail nearly squeezed the life from him, tucked safely out of sight wrapped around his stomach. "Gee, I vonder." He said, trying to keep his voice from cracking. Kitty giggled and walked around him. "Sorry, but I just aced my return to school test, and man I'm excited!" Kurt smiled calmly at her. "Zhat's vondebar, katzchen!" He flashed her one of his signature grins from his calm smile and they walked off together to second period. As they went their separate ways Pietro bumped into him. The speedster sneered at him. "HEYblueboywatchwhereyourgoingbeforeIrunyouover!" Kurt grimaced. "English, jerk, english!" Pietro scoffed. "Why don't you go back to germany so that you don't have to worry about it! Or should I… send you there?" Pietro's hand shot out and wrapped around Kurt's wrist, jerking his image inducer into the air for view. Kurt paled beneath his image inducer and fur. "Is everything all right, Mr. Wagner?" Kurt looked up at his second period teacher, Mr. Arlossn. Silently thankful for his kindness towards mutants, Kurt glared at Pietro. "No, sir… I zhink zat Mr. Maximoff vas just leaving?" Pietro glared at him back and stepped past him with a "I'll get you later." Dreading what he may have ment, Kurt stepped into his Math class and closed the door behind him.

* * *

Secretly X-23… Dani, as she had finally come to think of herself… kinda liked the attention John was giving her. However, she kept up her very logan like attitude. John was actually kinda nice… he didn't trust anyone though, something she could relate to. Well, could have related to up untill about a month ago, when she had finally joined the Xavier Institute to be closer to Logan… She was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone at the mansion were nice. She had gathered the courage and self control to finally come out of the subbasements and interact with everyone about three weeks ago. She had already befriended everyone (Except Collin, being that he was only staying temporarily) and was particularly good friends with Rahne and Jean. She had sort of a rivalry going with Tabitha but they were still friends. Dani just didn't like her energy. As she mulled these things over the period wore on, and when the bell rang it snapped her from her reverie. John stood, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Well ah… Dani… it was nice talking to you and… thanks for… well, you know." Dani nodded to him, still lost in her thoughts. She crinkled her petite nose and scratched her head. "No problem uh… Jack?"

"John."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's fine." He sounded a bit stung, and no wonder. Dani frowned inwardly to herself. She had said 'sorry' like she meant 'get lost'. She berated herself silently as they went their separate ways.

John shlepped his pack to second period and sat down in his assigned seat. Dani was the one who had saved him and she… well… seemed like a bit mean. He supposed that he might've lain on the attention a bit much anyways. He took a test (Which he thought was criminal… really! A test on the first day of school?) He saw a guy in red shades brooding at the back of the class, and… was it just him, or was a slight wisp of smoke rising from his glasses? He must've been one of the mutants people were whispering about having to come back to redo senior year. At nineteen years of age John understood his pain. He didn't want to stay in this place any longer than he had to. John moved his seat when the teacher wasn't looking to sit next to him. Shades gave him an unceremonius glare and returned to his notes. "Hey ah… My name's John, nice to meet you." Scott looked at his hand for a moment, then took it, shaking it. John was surprised how firm his grip was. As John sat back he looked at him for a sec. "And… you are?" Shade turned to him again, and John felt like he could melt him with a thought. "You don't care." John grimaced. "Look, I don't care if you're a mutant-" Shades snapped his pencil in half "- But I don't care. I'm new here and people have been mistaking me for a mutant too." He indicated his grey skin. Shades looked at him for a moment longer. "All right… fair enough. Sorry for being such a jerk." He pulled a new pencil from his pack. "Name's Scott. Nice to meet you John." John doodled on his paper to appear busy. A composite sketch, nothing too fancy, but- "Whoa, dude, that's some serious art skill ya got there." John looked at Scott surprisedly, then looked down and realized he had been drawing Scott's shades. "Ah… shit, sorry." Scott chuckled a bit. "Nah, man it's fine. I haven't seen a drawing that good since… well ever. You even got-" The boy stopped speaking. John had even gone so far as to draw the wisps of smoke that had been rising from his shades. John felt like he could roll over and die then roll back over in his grave. "Ehe… nice… observational skills." "Sorry, Scott…" The bell rang. John growled to himself. His friendship skills were simply EXCELLENT!! "So… later…" Scott nodded. "Yeah. Later." John proceeded into the hall for lunch. Little did he know that lunch would end with a bang… or rather a bamf.

(And there you have it folks, Chapter three is up. Have a fiasco!)


	4. Exposed

(A/N: Fourth chapter up… Trivia answer next chapter. Also, Nightcrawler's Shadow, I appreciate your support, as always. Watch for plenty of Kurtty in this chapter, and plenty of action, as well!)

James Sinclair sat in the back of the cafeteria, glaring contemptuously at Scott, Jean, Danielle (Or X-23, as she had been known), Kurt, Kitty and Rogue. The 'mutant scum' had taken their place… He hated it. And he knew that Kurt couldn't be kosher, either. He looked up as the Brotherhood mutants passed by. Them too. They revolted him. A plan was forming in his mind… to get info on the institute freaks and get the Brotherhood in trouble. James made his way over to their table. Todd looked up from a sandwich that had nearly as much slime as he did. "What d'you want, Sincrap?" The table erupted into snickers. Pietro sneered up at him. "Yeah, since Duncan Matthews left you're the mutant hater right? I suggest you vacate the area. Pronto." The Blob cracked his knuckles. James smirked. "And risk getting expelled? Like hell you would. Besides. I've got a proposition for you."

* * *

Kurt had a bad feeling stirring in his stomach, and it wasn't just because of the food. He kept looking around nervously, checking his holowatch. Kitty noticed this and frowned, leaning over to look at his holowatch with him. "Something wrong, Kurt?" Kurt, startled from his reverie, looked up into Kitty's worried blue eyes. He gave her a faux smile and took a drink of his milk. "Nein, Keety. I just have a bad feeling about somezhing." Kitty sat back. "Mkay, just, like, lemme know if you need any help, mkay?" Kurt nodded gratefully. "Danke, katzchen." He returned to his food, while Danielle smirked across the table at Principle Kelly as he entered the room. He had announced the other day that his last day as a principle and his first day as a senator would be in three days. He passed into the gym and Kurt sighed. "Vhat has his hosen?" Kitty giggled. "Like, his what?"

"Hosen!"

"What's a hosen?"

"His… _pants?_" Kurt made a face. Kitty giggled away. Her laughter abruptly stopped as he looked up to see the brotherhood looming over them. "Heeey, Wagner whatchagotthere?" Kurt hissed at Pietro. "Go find some small children to torment, jerk." Pietro laughed. "You seem to think I'm going to listen! How cuuute." Kitty stood in front of him, frowning angrily. "Listen speedy if you even touch him I'll-" Pietro cut her off with a laugh. "you'll do what? Youcan'tevencatchme!" He spun her around at a high speed, knocking her milk into Rogue. "Hey!" Scott stood, putting his hand on his glasses. "Step off, unless you want to be a flying squirrel rather than an overactive one." Pietro laughed again. "As if you could even catch me." Scott was about to respond when the Blob did what he always did, grabbing his head and putting his forehead none too lightly on the table. He used his other gargantuan hand trapped Scott's arms behind his back. Rogue gave a cry of protest and went to free him when Toad tackled her, spitting slime in her face. Rogue groaned. "Ewwww… yuck! Ahm' gonna kick yer slimy hide!" She rolled to her feet and grabbed for him, chasing him around the table till Toad knocked her flat again. "Siddown, roguie!" Todd cackled. Pietro pushed Kitty aside, which boiled Kurt's blood. "Don't you touch her!" A stream of German curses erupted from his mouth as he jumped for Pietro. Lance smirked and tackled him sideways into Kitty, who was phasing to grab Lance through the table. His holowatch passed through her and he fell to the floor with a thunk. His watch fizzled and crackled, then shorted out, and Kurt was left facing the most horrible moment of his life.

* * *

John looked up when the first scream rang out. He saw Danielle, Scott, and their friends gathered around something on the floor. He stood up frowning, to see what was going on when his heart nearly stopped. _The mutant from the burning building! _It HAD happened! And now the Brotherhood mutants (Whom he had gotten acquainted with earlier that day, unfortunately) were picking on him. A holographic image flickered around the boy and John realized that the guy was being picked on… he didn't like his appearance any more than others did. Frowning again John began to make his way over when more screams rang out and he was knocked aside by the tide of people rushing to get away from the 'blue demon'.

* * *

James smirked. This was going perfectly. He sat back and watched the Brotherhood work, and when the Demon's disguise had dropped he had been disgusted… of course. Masquerading as a normal human… horrible. As the other students fled he himself left… he could catch up with the demon later… him and the rest of the football team could catch up with the demon later.

* * *

Kurt felt… nothing… fear, agony, horror, they coursed through his head like foul apothecaries of some horrible fate to come. He lay there on the ground, golden eyes darting around as people saw him, screamed, ran. The Brotherhood had long since evacuated. Kurt curled into a little ball, tail twitching traitorously behind him, curling around the table leg. Kitty kneeled next to him, beautiful blue eyes wide with fear and worry. "Kurt? Kurt!? Answer me! Kurt?" Kurt's mind felt fuzzy.

* * *

Kitty pulled his head into her lap, brushing a blue bang out of his face, petrified with fear. Kitty felt herself on the verge of tears. She remembered when she had first seen him in his regular appearance. She had screamed, he had ported, it hadn't been good. She felt so ashamed now… A tear fell onto his temple, creating a wet stain on his fur. She quickly realized what she was doing and she wiped her eyes, gingerly brushing away her tear on his temple with her thumb. "Like… we gotta get him… outta here guys!" Scott nodded. Jean ran up to them looking petrified. "I… I felt Kurt's mind get dull, what happened?" Rogue wiped the last of the slime away. "It was those bastards in tha brotherhood, Jean." Jean frowned. "We… we gotta get him out of here before-" She looked down as a 'bamf' resounded through the cafeteria, and Kitty looked down on an empty lap. X-23, who had been quiet this entire time, leapt to her feet. "I'll find him." She said, and with a twitch of her nose she ran off, X-men in tow.

* * *

Kurt reappeared in the middle of a hallway, shaking. He began staggering towards the exit, muttering in german. A shout of "He's here!" stopped him dead in his tracks. He turned to find himself facing the entire football team. Kurt's eyes widened. He still felt weak, too weak to teleport. "Nien… nien… leave me alone!" He turned to run and ran into two more burly seniors. Kurt backed away. There was no help coming.

* * *

John rounded the corner to find the entire football team surrounding the demon who had saved him from the fire… not a demon, he now realized, just a mutant. And he needed help. John smirked. He didn't like the football team, and now he got to vent his anger at the past couple of days of his life. He crossed his steel colored arms and whistled with his fingers. "Hey, jockstraps! Why not leave the kid alone, huh?" He knew he couldn't possibly beat them all… but he'd have a helluva time doing it. His judo training could finally be put to good use, too. As they rounded on him, bats waving, he grimaced, taking up a defensive stance. The first jock rushed at him, yelling and waving his bat. John smirked. They'd better not make this too easy. John swept the player's foot from under him, grabbed the bat and wrenched downwards, flipping him and getting him to relenquish his grip on the bat. Now armed with a weapon, John allowed himself a small smile. He twirled the bat in one hand. "What's a matter? You can beat the crap outta a demon but you can't shut up some senior?" two more jocks ran at him, growling angrily. John whacked the first one with the bat, producing a dull thunk. He dropped, and John looked up in time to block the next jocks bat with his own. He grabbed the grip of the bat exposed from his hand and wrenched it downwards, bringing his own bat up into the jocks armpit. The wind knocked out of him, the jock dropped. Now John had _two _bats. His smirk spread to a cheshire smile. This was going to be fun.

* * *

Kurt was vaguely aware of the people who had been beating him turning to a newcomer. He lifted his battered head to see the kid they had rescued from the fire… john, his name had been. He had a pair of bats and he was dropping jocks left and right. He took a couple of hits himself but it seemed like he was doing fairly well. Dully he thought that this guy would give Logan a run for his money. Someone crouched next to him and he heard a low snikt sound. He looked up with tired eyes to see James Sinclair standing above him, the resident mutant hater after Duncan Matthews, gripping a knife. His eyes were wide with fury, no doubt at the fact that this newcomer was beating the entire varsity football team senseless. As he raised the knife Kurt waited for him to finish the job.

* * *

John grimaced as the leader of the group pulled out a knife and raised his arm to stab the blue one. He couldn't let that asshole kill another human… eh… mutant being could he? He couldn't. John knew it would push his heart too far, probably spark another attack, but he couldn't stand by. So, dodging another blow from one of the remaining jocks, he sprang up onto the lockers in a great show of agility that he didn't even know he could do. He rolled to his feet after leaping over another jock and in front of James. He had seconds to act. He swung both bats at his chest, and with a sickening crunch the mutant hater was sent slamming into the lockers, leaving a nice sized dent. John stood straight, panting, and dropped the bats. His head swam, and a lance of pain shot across his back, sending him pitching forwards. Rolling to his back, he looked up at the four jocks he'd had yet to defeat, and the other five who had been absent coming around the corner. They looked at their thirteen or so friends, incapacitated, and an outraged yell sounded from the foremost jock as he stampeded towards them. John felt his extremities go numb and he arched his back against the pain of his condition, screaming in pain.

* * *

Kurt pulled himself to his feet as the next set of jocks rounded the corner. John had fallen to the ground, after taking a nasty hit from a bat that had triggered one of the episodes Beast had told him about. He limped in front of John and snarled as menacingly as he could at the jocks. "Leave him alone!" The jocks looked scared for a moment and then they advanced again, apparently convinced that in his state he couldn't harm them. And they were right. Kurt could fight, but not as well as the boy on the floor behind him and not in his state, still stunned from his being revealed and being beaten. Kurt fell to one knee. And there was a wild battle cry and one of the jocks came flying past him, half a bat clutched in one hand. X-23 slammed into another jock, and another bat fell asunder. An optic beam slammed into the jock over Kurt, sending him into one of the others picking himself up off the ground. Another was picked up into the air and sent out the doors, and kurt took the liberty of chucking a bat at the last standing football player. He fell with a crack and that was that. Kitty tackle- hugged Kurt, knocking him over backwards. She looked close to tears. "Ok my god, Kurt!" She his her face in his chest and gave a light sob. "I'm so sorry!" Kurt put an arm hesitantly around her. "V-vas…? Oh!" She withdrew, rolling off him, and pulled him to his feet. "For messing up your inducer… like, I'm sooooo sorry." Kurt smiled at her. "Don't vorry about it katzchen." He turned to John, who was still twitching, curled into a ball on the floor. "Ve must get him out of here!"


	5. Injuries

(A/N: James won't be dying any time soon, but he'll be out of the picture for now. Time for Johnny boy to undergo a little… transformation… MUAHAHA- uh… ahem. Trivia answer is Wild Thing, a girl with the ability to summon psychokinetic claws to attack the minds of her foes.)

James was aware of a crushing pain in his chest. That damned interloper… he had been going to stab the blue demon, and he had gotten in the way! But… there was a trickling sensation in his chest. James decided it was time to open his eyes. He looked down and almost screamed. He probably would have if it werent for the fact that he had several tubes running down his throat, injecting him with… some silvery substance. He tried to move his arms, tried to struggle… because he was being operated on. Another dizzy feeling hit him, and he heard someone talking. He only caught the last part before he blacked out "… the biggest threat to mutantkind the world will ever see!" His vision blurred and he closed his eyes. Suddenly he wasn't so scared.

* * *

Kurt was sitting on the couch in the living room, eyes glued to the TV. He had to focus on the TV, at the moment, because Kitty had fallen asleep on him again. He didn't mind but… his mind ran through several possibilities. Some were more innocent than others. Kurt bit his lip. _Kurt, you're a blue fuzzy demon elf, what could she possibly want from you? Besides, what about 'just friends?' _Kurt sighed. Inner voices were always right, weren't they? Kitty mumbled something and pushed herself against Kurt's chest. Kurt's eyes widened a bit, and his tail twitched erratically from side to side. She woke up slowly, yawning petitely, and realisedwhere she was. One hand flew to her mouth. "Ohmygosh, Kurt, I'm like, SO sorry…" She knew he was touchy, ever since being outed at school the other day. Luckily, it was now Saturday so they had time to deal with it. Kurt was seeing the professor three times a day for psychiatrical help to get through it. Kurt shook his head. "Don't vorry, katzchen, your fine. Vant to go see if Johnny Boy is avake?" He said mischeiviously. Kitty giggled, nodding her agreement, and together they walked down to the infirmary. Kurt paused in front of the elevator and made a sweeping bow, tail sweeping from side to side behind him. "After you, Fraulein." Kitty sighed exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "Always the gentlemen huh?" She stepped into the elevator and pulled him with her. Kurt and Kitty were surprised to see X-23 sitting by John's bedside, looking down at him with an expression Kurt had never seen on her face before. When they pushed the door open she looked up, seeing Kurt and Kitty, and her face paled. She leapt up, stepped back, and her surprise and embarassment faded to the thing her father was best known for… anger. "What the HELL are you doing down here?" She hissed, face turning red. Kitty blinked. "Um… we wanted to see the kid that saved Kurt's life?" X-23 fumbled with her words for a moment. "No… I… that's not what I…" She growled and pushed past them. "You tell anyone I was down here… ANYONE… and you'll be eating your food through a straw for a week!" Kurt blinked, watching her brush a strand of hair from her tan face and leave. "Vhat has her-" Kitty cut him off. "Hosen?" Kurt opened his mouth to reply, but closed it and frowned. Kitty laughed raucously. "Hey! I only said it vonce! Are you going to hold it over my head forever?" Kurt turned to the comatose figure in the bed before them, and Kitty's laughter died. "He'll be ok, Kurt."

* * *

X-23 felt mortified. She had been caught with the newcomer… he hadn't even been awake! Whats worse, the two biggest gossips in the entire mansion had seen it. It would be better if it had been Jean, or even Tabitha. At least they could keep a secret. X-23 pushed the thoughts from her head as she saw Beast, one of the teachers at the institute, walking with Professor Xavier, the man who had been kind enough to allow her into his home even after she had infiltrated it. They were talking about something on a chart, and as X-23 neared them she realized it was John. Her heart fluttered and she mentally told herself to stop. This… other was occupying too much of her focus. Professor Xavier looked up at her and raised one eyebrow critically. X-23's heart went cold. Was he reading her thoughts? The professor sighed. "Something wrong, X-23?"

"Please, professor…"

"Oh yes, Lola. You wanted to change your name again, right?

"Yeah… Thanks professor." He nodded. "Not at all. Now, did you need something?" She considered this for a moment. "I… how is the newcomer… I mean… John, doing?" Hank shook his head. "Not well. The disease is obliterating his nerves at an enhanced speed." X-23 frowned. Hank noticed this, smiling slightly out of the corner of his mouth. "Don't worry… I'm sure we'll be able to save him." X-23 nodded and moved past them, looking for Logan. She had a Danger Room session to make up.

* * *

The Professor looked at Hank curiously. "You have a plan for the boy, Hank?" The furry apeman turned to look at the professor, adjusting his glasses. "I… do have an idea. Remember the Power 8 energy drink?" The professor remembered, all too clearly, the entire fiasco. It had started with a group of sewer mutants named the Morlocks, and ended with one of his own students joining them due to an evolution in his powers. "Aha. You intend to use it to jumpstart his dormant X-Gene?" Beast nodded. "Precisely. It will not be pleasant for him, but it may save his life." The professor mulled this over for a moment, then nodded. "It is the best option we have." Beast smiled at him. "I will let you know when I'm ready to test." The professor pushed his fingertips together like he often did. Johnathan was about to undergo a change he may never forget.

* * *

Kurt had sojourned to his room after dinner to clean his fur. He sat cross legged on his bed and pulled out a brush he had come to know and hate. He slowly began pulling the brush through his rough fur. He liked being brushed, but the brush reminded him of his… appearance. He worked down his left arm, then switching hands and going down his right. He pulled off his shirt and began brushing the fur around his collarbone when Kitty phased through the door, as she often did. Kurt yelped and fell back, dropping the brush. "Aiyeh! Keetty!" The brunette quickly realised her mistake and turned around covering her eyes. "Oh my god! Kurt, I'm sorry!" Kurt sat up, grabbing the brush and his blanket and covering his chest with it. Kitty turned around, raising an eyebrow and putting her hands on her hips. "Oh please, it's not like I've never seen you with your shirt off." Kurt turned a deeper shade of blue. "Yes… but you've never seen me…" He shuddered at the word he was about to use. He had to force it out, and even to him it sounded like he was grinding the word out. "… _grooming…_ myself." Kurt grimaced. Kitty walked over and sat in a chair next to the bed. "Kurt, its nothing to be ashamed of." "Says you… You don't have blue fuzz all over your body!" Kitty frowned, and Kurt wished he would have said it nicer. "So what, Kurt? It's still nothing to be ashamed of. You need to brush your fur like I need to brush my hair." Kurt sighed, letting the sheet fall away. He picked up the brush and set it on the bedside table. Kitty looked at it for a moment. She picked up the brush and moved onto the bed, next to him. He shied away. She scooted closer to him. "Oh, stop it." She said firmly. Tentatively she reached out and began brushing his fur on his chest lightly. He closed his eyes, still reluctant to be in this position. She scooted next to him, leaned her head on his shoulder. As she continued to brush his chest, she heard a weird vibration noise coming from him. She pulled her head back and put a hand to her mouth when she realised what it was. "Kurt… holy crap, you're purring, arent you?!" Kurt turned darker blue again. "I vas… well sometimes I…" Kitty giggled. "Ohmygod, that's sooo cute!" Kurt grimaced. "I… Keetty, it's not…" Kitty giggled, putting her head back on his shoulder and closing her eyes. Kurt felt as if he might die. She started to push closer to him when he stopped her. "Ach… Keetty, vait. This isn't… I can't…" Kitty pulled away and looked up at him. Her blue eyes held confusion… Kurt had dreamed many times of falling into those blue eyes… "I… Keetty, you are my friend. I can't… let you throw avay your life by being closer to me zhen you already are." Kitty's eyes went from confused to hurt. She stood up, walking to the door before Kurt could explain himself further. His heart wrenched painfully in his chest. Kitty looked back at him. "Kurt… I understand where your coming from, but…" Her eyes teared up slightly. "If it's my life, I should be able to decide what it is I want to do with it!" With that, she phased through the door and was gone.

* * *

(Trouble's brewing, and all's not right in the X-Mansion. Can X-23 deny her feelings? Will John live through the procedure? Will Kurt and Kitty ever be a couple? Will Nightcrawler's Shadow rip my head off for this angst?! We'll find out! Well… not if she rips off my head. Enjoy!)


	6. Velocity

(A/N: Hidey ho there! Next chapter, coming at ya!)

John awoke slowly. He felt… numb. Nothing. All he could see over him was a harsh white light. A shadow moved somewhere over to his left, and his heart jumped. Where was he? He couldn't feel his arms. Why? _Where were his arms? _John felt panic welling up in his chest like a bile that suffocated him. He was dead. That had to be it…

* * *

X-23 paled as John slowly awoke, then began to spasm violently. Beast ran up from the hallway and began barking orders to Scott, Jean, and Logan, who had come with him. The blue apeman looked at X-23 and blinked. "Lola, can you-" X-23 shook her head. "Just X-23 now." Hank sighed. "Fine, X. Can you go get the professor?" X-23 grimaced. He made it sound like everything was fine. She knew it wasn't. But still she ran off to find the professor.

* * *

Kurt nearly bumped into X-23 when she sprinted past. Kurt reflected on how many times her name had changed recently but dropped it when Kitty walked past him. He opened his mouth to say something but then X-23 and the professor wheeled and walked into view. "Ah, Kurt, Kitty. Our friend has woken up, why don't you come say hello?" Kurt sighed inwardly. Of course, he had to come along just then. But, Kurt ran with X-23 and the Professor and Kitty down to the infirmary. When they got there, they were greeted by a grim sight. John was convulsing violently. His grey skin had aqcuired a sweaty sheen. His face was contorted in a grimace of pain, and Beast had strapped his arms down. Scott and Jean were watching horrified from one side, while X-23 was sitting next to him, eyes wide. Her hand was wrapped lightly around his, almost as if she hadn't consciously done it. Slowly, his convulsions ceased. So did his pulse. The flatline tone issued from the machine connected to the heart of the man who had saved Kurts life twice, and never gotten thanked for it. Kitty's eyes teared up. Almost as if drawn she walked slowly to Kurt, and then collapsed into his arms, sobbing. Kurt himself felt a tear run down his cheek. He sunk to his knees, lightly holding Kitty. Jean and Scott had turned away, holding each other lightly. Beast returned with the crash cart, revving up the paddles. "Clear!" The heart monitor beeped once and returned to it's crash tone. He lifted up off the bed. Beast repositioned the rubber shocks on his chest and tried again. "Clear!" Another single beep. "Clear!" John's eyes closed slowly. "Goddamn it, John, stay with me! _Clear!" _And with that, his heart started moving again. Beast sighed, unplugging the crash cart. John slumped onto the bed. His eyes stayed closed but his heart rate was back to normal. Kurt was dimly aware of X-23 rushing past him and out the door. Kitty wiped her eyes, still pressed tightly against him. "K-Kurt… can we talk, outside?" Kurt wiped his own eyes, nodding. Maybe now he could apologize. He led her outside, and she pulled him through the wall and into one of the rooms that had been built when the mansion was destroyed. Kurt knew this was his chance to apologize, to explain himelf.

* * *

Kitty felt the odd, breathless expression she got every time she phased. As they appeared on the other side of the wall, she let go of Kurt's hand and walked with him to the middle of the room. "Listen, Katzchen, I-" Kitty shook her head to cut him off. She knew what he was going to say and she knew he was sorry. "No, you listen Kurt. Like, I know your scared of how people will react to you. I know your scared of hurting your friends because of your appearance. But… I don't care about that, Kurt! It doesn't matter to me! You may look like a fuzzy blue elf… But you're the nicest, kindest, most caring guy." Kitty's eyes teared up again and she forced them down. She wasn't going to get her point across if she cried. "You're afraid of destroying our friendship, right?" He shamefully nodded. "But like, everyone in the mansion tells me that you have THE biggest crush on me." Kurt turned a deep shade of indigo, and a reluctant smile spread across his face. "Vhell I'll just have to double my pranking, vont I?" Kitty smiled. "See? Never caught in a bad mood. That's why I… I love you, Kurt." She stepped closer to him. "And there's nothing you can do…" She took another step. They were close now. "To change it…" To Kitty's joy Kurt closed his eyes and leaned in as well. Their lips had almost met when Scott threw the door open. "Danger room session in- oh, shit, sorry guys." Needless to say their magical first kiss didn't happen quite yet… but a good prank on Scott was soon to come.

* * *

John woke up slowly. His chest hurt, his arms hurt, his legs hurt… and he had a throbbing headache. He groaned. "Ugh… feels like I got hit by a train…" He winced as he sat up, his back and legs screaming in protest. The blue apeman dude who he'd seen as he came in and out of consciousness looked up as he did. "Oh, hello John. My name's Dr. Hank McCoy, but you can call me beast." He smiled a friendly smile that contrasted his appearance. Beast, yeah right. John had long since learned that looks were not what you should go on. John stretched, his right arm lighting on fire. His left one had a small needle hole in it. "I been out for long… Mr. McCoy?" Beast nodded. "Well, three days."

"And you took care of me all this time."

"Indupitably."

"Don't you have anything better to do?" John had said it almost challenging, as if he expected the blue furry man to say yes. But the question obviously caught him off guard, because his face grew confused. "I… well…" A motor sound approached and a man in a wheelchair rolled into the room. "Preserving a life is always the top of the to-do list." John scoffed. "Yeah, well if I have one why didn't anyone ever tell me? Look, I should probably get outta your hair before I cause too much trouble- aah!" He tried to stand and fell back against the bed. Beast loped over to him and helped him back onto the bed. "You're in no condition. And it's not like this is the first time you've been here. Ever wonder how you got to the hotel?" John grimaced. "So it was you guys?" Wheels nodded. "My name is professor Xavier. I run this institute for higher learning so that mutants can safely coexist with humans, learn to control their powers." John grimaced. "I am a mutant then." Professor Xavier nodded again. "Yes." John sighed, shaking his head. "All right… what are my powers?" The professor blinked. "Well, as near as we can tell… You have the ability to create a steel exoskeleton around yourself. It will increase your speed, strength, size, stamina. In addition to that, your reaction time and agility will be increased drastically. And…" John raised an eyebrow. "Damn. There's more after that?" The professor nodded. "Myes, and this is the most curious of your powers. You can alter the velocity of yourself and, with some difficulty, the velocity of other objects." John blinked. "So in english that means…?" Hank chuckled. With a smile the professor explained. "You can make yourself hit harder, move faster and jump higher when your using your power. Velocity is the force with which something is moving. Like, when your falling. Your picking up speed and velocity and when you hit the ground, you'll hit it harder depending on how much velocity you've gained." John gave himself a moment to absorb all this. "So like… If I swung my hand…" He waved his arm, and concentrated hard. His arm blurred forward in a flash of motion and his elbow snapped straight, making the joint ache. "Ow! Son of a…" He made a face and rubbed his elbow. Hank chuckled again. John sighed. "So, what? I go back to the hotel and pretend I've never seen all this?" He cautiously waved an arm, although with his reflexes hyped up it still came out faster than he had meant. Hank shookhis head. "No." The professor wheeled to his side, and looked him in the eye. "You are welcome to stay here, to train, to help learn how to control your powers. We've already gotten a bed for you, a room, a place to live. Friends, and help when you need it." John mulled this over. He didn't like to trust anyone. But… Scott, Mr. McCoy, the professor… Dani… No, X-23. Wait, where'd that last thought come from? Somehow he knew that 'dani's real name was X-23. He looked at the professor, who smiled innocently. John shrugged it off. "I…" The professor looked at him. "In case you were wondering, my mutant power is that I can read minds. I know how your feeling. You've always felt alone, never able to trust anyone." John looked at the wall uncomfortably. "But here, this is a place you can be safe. People here will trust you, and you can trust them." John felt his mind clicking and whirring. He thought of Dani… X-23… and he made up his mind. "All right. I'll stay." Hank smiled. "All right then." The professor smiled as well. "Welcome, John. To the X-Men.

* * *

(Woo! Sixth chapter, have a hoot. John's powers were boosted by the Power 8, an energy drink that boosts mutant gene growth and causes intense pain, but only to mutants. If you've seen the show its the reason Spyke leaves the team.)


	7. Threat

(A/N: Hey, guys. I've skipped about two days between the last chapter… I'll reiterate this in the actual story. Enjoi!)

John rolled to his feet after taking a sharp blow from a robotic arm in the danger room. He stood up straight and concentrated hard, and a suit of robotic armor began to form around him. He grew to 7'2" and chuckled, his voice now deeper and more metallic. He likened this steel armor to that of a Sentinel's form, except his helmet was more of a human look, minus any nose and mouth you might see. His chest, other than the cannons and rockets of a sentinel, was covered in separate steel plates that made up the pecs and abs of a humanoid, but of course steel. He caught a robot arm and pulled, forcing his velocity away from it to yank it out of the wall. He staggered back, unable to compensate for the sudden change of weight. He dropped the arm and leapt backwards. The boosters in his feet ignited and with a lurching sensation he flipped over, severing the flow of his power to return his velocity back to normal. He crashed into Gambit, just back from his July 4 excursion the other day, and they both went tumbling to the ground. Returning to his normal form, John rolled off him. "Ah… sorry, Gambit." The red- eyed cajun chuckled a bit. "Don' worry 'bout it _mon ami._ You'll get into the groove." He rolled to his feet, casually sidestepping a robot arm. He slid his finger across it as it passed and the arm began to glow. John armored up and grabbed Gambit, spinning around to use his broad armored back to take the explosion. He felt a wave of heat wash across his shoulders, then let Gambit go and stepped away, kicking at the robot arm as Kurt 'ported kitty into the controll hub and she shorted it out. John smiled inside his helmet. "Arright! That's endgame." He powered down and stretched. Staying in his armor for too long tired him out drastically. The professor turned on the P.A. system and cleared his throat. "Well done X-Men. Strafe, your fitting in nicely." John felt a flicker of pride. He had chosen his X-name himself, and he liked that the others seemed to like it as well. X-23 jogged up, sheathing her claws. With her, Scott. John scratched his cheek. He and Scott had become good friends, he and Gambit even more so. But his best friend was Kurt, and when he appeared with Kitty he laughed and slapped him five. Kurt gave him a fanged grin. "Vondebar! Zhat's ze best time yet!" Scott nodded. X-23 subtly slid into place in the circle next to him as they all joked. After they were done talking and the group broke up, it formed the standard groups: Kitty and Kurt walked out to go shower, with Scott right behind them. Gambit waltzed off to find any girl he could, and John walked with X-23 to the kitchen so he could snack. They had also become fast friends, but a different friendship. X-23 was quieter, not as raucous. They didn't joke as much as he and Kurt, nor did they argue as much as he and Scott. It had been two days and John was settling into the institution well... better than even the professor had thought he might (His steel colored skin was a bit off- putting... Well, kinda). X-23 yawned, bringing her arms up in a petite motion that belied her harsher character. John sympathized with her… being alone, not trusting anyone. However there was still one thorn in his side. A very loud, obnoxious thorn. Who could freeze stuff. Bobby Drake, Iceman, slid around the corner. "Hey, X." He stopped next to her before they could enter the kitchen, smiling his dopey smile. "Getting somethin' to eat, huh?" John rolled his eyes and slipped past him. "Yeah, I was just in there earlier." John probably should have realized something was wrong when he said that. Bobby wasn't a snacker, he didn't eat a whole lot. But his brain was still cooling down from the danger room session and he had point three seconds to realize as he opened the fridge that the pie was going to hit him like a bullet. Unfortunately even with his reflexes he wasn't able to avoid the terrible impact of the cooled treat. His head snapped backwards. He heard X-23 giggling and decided it might be good to vacate the area.

* * *

When Kurt finished washing himself down and brushing his fur he vacated the shower. He 'ported directly into his room. Pulling on his usual weekend clothes he proceeded to teleport into the living room, where Rogue and Gambit were having the usual argument. "Not on yer life, cajun!" "Ah, but _cherie, _it isn't my life I bet!" They vaulted over the couch and around it again, Rogue giggling lightly. "Go find someone else to annoy, Remy, Ah've got no patience for ya!" "Oh, Rogue, you wound me." He mock swooned and waltzed out the door. Rogue followed him, shaking her head. That was when Kitty slipped into the room. She saw Kurt and blushed a bit, sitting down on the couch and expecting him to port, he could tell. He ignored his mind's ponderings and sat down next to her. "Keety… About before, I-" John stormed through the door, still wiping pie from his face. Bobby came after him, X-23 following. She looked confused, as if she had done something wrong. Kurt grimaced. Always the wrong time. That's when he felt a buzz in his head that preceeded a telepathic message. _**X-men! We have trouble. Assemble in the x-jet hangar immediately.**_With that Kurt grabbed Kitty and ported, witnessing John wiping the rest of the pie off his face and sprinting out of the room, Bobbie and X-23 hot on his heels.

* * *

Far above the city the meteor- like balls of fire streaked towards the earth, leaving a trail of smoke smeared across the evening sky. Their earthbound trajectories planted them in separate places, one in the city downtown, one in the forest by the institute, one at the pier on the other end of town, and one in the Bayville High football field. The smoke cleared, and a single figure rose from the crater, surveying its surroundings. The steel man climbed from the crater and tromped towards the middle of the city, mirrored by the other four, overturning cars in their wake.

* * *

X-23 had known something was wrong. When Bobby had entered she had smelled the fresh pie on his hands but didn't think it would be a problem. Poor John… She felt horrified that she had actually giggled when he got pied in the face... it was kind of funny but she would have rather had John not be on the 'cause' end of her humor. Bobby had been hanging around her all week, now she realized why. He felt threatened by her closeness to John. When she thought about it she realized she had felt threatened too, but had gotten over it. She walked silently beside Bobby and when they reached the X-Jet hangar, Professor X, Logan, Beast and Storm were already waiting there. Storm must've just gotten back. The african weatherwitch smiled warmly at X-23 when she saw her. X-23 waved back, then focused her attention on what the professor was saying. Bobby yawned, sliding an arm around her shoulder. X-23 didn't resist. She had always sort of liked Bobby. She heard John shift uncomfortably next to her. She felt torn. Suddenly something the professor said broke through her thoughts. "- metal figures headed towards the center of town." What? Surely it couldn't be another sentinel. Could it? No, the sentinels were huge. She focused now on what the professor was saying. "There are four of them, so we'll be dividing into four teams. Bobby, X-23, Scott, Hank, you'll all be headed for the one from the docks. Jean, you, John, and Storm will be stopping the one headed from Bayville High. Logan, you take Kurt and Kitty and stop the one from downtown, and lastly, Rogue, Gambit, Rahne, Sam, Robert and Amara will be stopping the one from the forest. X-Men, move out. And so it was. X-23 threw a forlorn look over her shoulder at John, who turned away and followed Jean and Storm to the X- Helicopter, named the Velocity. Odd that they should choose that mode of transport. She let Bobby steer her onto the X-Jet, and watched Kurt, Kitty and Logan run for the garage elevator. She sighed. Bobby sat down and she sat down in a chair in the opposite row. Scott looked back at them, Beast dropping into the copilot seat. "Ready?" Everyone nodded. "Ok, let's go stop a metal man!"

* * *

John had an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling it would take a lot more than the three of them to stop whatever these things were. As the Velocity lifted off the ground John clenched and unclenched his hands, feeling anxious. Jean smiled warmly at him. "Don't worry, John, You'll do fine." He realized that this was his very first mission and that only added to his anxiety. He nodded to Jean and Storm called back from the cockpit. "Yes, we will finish this mission in time for a midnight snack." As they flew John realized that the day had given way to night. He sighed and rubbed his head. "Anyone else getting some serious bad vibes about this?" Jean giggled. "Only yours, and not because of the mission." John made a face. "It's bad enough that it's my first mission, your reading my thoughts about X-23 now too?" Jean and Ororo both laughed. Jean flashed him a bright smile. "I was referring to your airsickness."

* * *

Kurt sat in the passengers seat while Logan drove them downtown. "So, vhat's the deal vith zis steel guy? Are ve just going to dismantle it first, ask questions later?" Both Logan and Kitty gave him a 'duh' look. Kurt threw his hands up. "Oh, my bad for asking a civilized qvestion." He made a face that made Kitty laugh. Kurt leaned against the door, putting his cheek on his hand. His tail twitched next to him. "Like, why so tense, fuzzy?" Kitty blinked, still turned around. "I am nervous for John. Zis is his first mission and I vant him to do well." Kitty smiled at him. "You got a crush on him?" Kurt hissed at her. "Nien! I'm merely worried! Zis mission seems too simple." Kitty recoiled as he hissed at her. "Like, wow, chill. I know your nervous." Kurt reached forwards and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked back and smiled. Then they ran into something and Kurt was sent rocking forward, hitting his head on the seat in front of him with a dull thunk. "Scheisse! Vhat vas zat for, Volverine!?" The veteran pointed slowly at what was holding the front of the car down. Kurt's stomach blanched. This was going to be VERY difficult.

* * *

(Woot! What is brewing in the world of X-Men? Well I'm sorry to stop this at such an inconveinient time –cough- love it -cough-… but rest assured, the… well I dunno how many of your are reading it at the time I'm posting this… I guess it's just Nightcrawler's Shadow and Pride… Well, whatever. Till next chapter! And it'll be starring some commentary with a certain blonde ninja… BECAUSE I CAN!)


	8. Blood and Iron

(A/N: Aaah… Mornin' folks! Epsilon Indi here, waking up just now. It's almost twelve, I'm a heavy sleeper. To help with this authors note I have here with me a certain blonde ninja from an all-too- familiar village hidden in the leaves.

Mysterious newcomer: Damn right! Don't you forget it, 'ttebayo.

Epsilon Indi: So, tell me Nar- uh… mysterious newcomer, what do you like about this story?

M.N.: I like the hitting!

E.I.: Yeah, me too. Anything else?

M.N.: I like the love triangle between X-23, that asshole Bobby Drake, and that John kid.

E.I.: Who are you rooting for with that?

M.N.: GO JOHN GO! SHOW THAT STUPID UCHIHA PRICK NOT TO MESS WITH YOUR GIRL! DATTEBAYO!

E.I.: (O-O) eh… well so much for anonymity. Well for all those of you that hadn't guessed it, it's Naruto, who was kind enough to come back to talk with us after a mission.

(Naruto): Oh are we using real names now? Huh? Should I just call out your real name?

E.I.: Naruto you don't know my real name.

(Naruto)…

E.I.: …

(Naruto): Oh who gives a shit GET ON WITH THE STORY 'TTEBAYO!

* * *

John had to leap straight up to avoid the missile. Not a difficult task you say? Well when your wearing a four-hundred-pound suit of armor that your still learning how to move, it's a tad trying. When he landed another one was coming right at him. _Damn spread missiles. _He rolled sideways and to his feet, then sprinted at the steel thing that both Jean and Storm insisted on calling the 'Sentinoid'. John punched it in the 'sentinoid' face, kicked it in the 'sentinoid' gut, and ripped off its 'sentinoid' hand before kicking it on its 'sentinoid' ass. He didn't like the name. Turning to the others, who were catching their breath by the copter, he waved the 'sentinoid's hand to them. "Hey! I killed it!" And then he felt something behind him. Jean started running towards him and Storm had summoned a lightning storm. John ducked under a… well it wasn't a punch, seeing as he had ripped the things hand off… but he ducked under it's arm and was met with one of its knees. His head snapped back, and he took a step away from it, trying to get his bearings. He jumped back, the sentinoid (damn now HE was calling it that) took another feeble swing at him. Then it did something that really made things problematic. It's chest expanded, revealing a hidden panel of cannons and lasers, the barrels sliding out of its chest. The arm that still had its hand elongated and expanded, rippling, untill there were two claws, and a cannon mounted on top. John sighed. "Anyone want to uh… take over this one?" They were in the parking lot of Bayville high. He backflipped over a car, a jump of maybe ten feet in the air. This surprised him. "Whoa! I think the biomechanics of the suit's techno-organic muscles have finally got working!" Jean gave him a blank stare while Storm forced back the sentinoid with lightning. John looked at Jean with the same black stare for a moment. "The uh… nevermind." He leapt upwards, over the car again, and began moving in a zigzag motion to distract the robot. It's eyes tracked him as he moved, but its weapons moved to slow. He leapt up over it, landed behind it, and wrapped his arms under it's armpits and wrapped his hands behind its head in a full nelson. It flailed around a bit, but John held it steady. "Storm! Hit it!" There was a flash of lightning and John felt a mild tingling sensation as some of the electricity ran through him. He felt the machine struggle weakly and gritted his teeth. "More! Give it more juice!" Storm hesitated. "But it'll conduct through to you!" "Don't worry about it! The armor is rubber insulated!" Storm frowned. John turned the robot towards her again and felt a rattling shock run through him. The robot slackened in his grip and John dropped it. He staggered back and sat down on a bench. "Damn…" The sentinoid twitched once and then shut off. There was a large, blackened hole in it's chest. "Hey, nice job strafe!" John coughed. "Don't mention it. We should probably figure out how the others-" He was cut off by a large 'boom' and a rather large fireball from downtown. They all looked at each other and thought the same thing. "If Logan blew up the X-Van, the professor's gonna be pissed."

* * *

Kurt was barely able to teleport in time to avoid the fifth missile. He reappeared on the side of the building they were fighting in front of and looked around with wide eyes for Kitty and Logan. They had tried to rush it and shut it off from the inside. It looked like a sentinel. It acted like a sentinel. It turned into weapons mode like a sentinel. But it was the size of a regular person, maybe a bit taller. Kurt hadn't seen them escape the explosion. _Oh my god… it killed Kitty… that BASTARD!! _Kurt felt an extreme rage building up in his chest. He snarled and 'ported. He had been saving this for Logan, but this would do it. He reappeared in front of the robot, kicking it back with a growl. Then, he reappeared behind it. He ripped out a few cords and teleported onto its shoulders, crashing both his fists into its face. Despite his appearance, he was very strong. Metal crunched and the optic sensors broke. Then he teleported to its right, then its left, then above it, then behind it again, then in front of it, onto its chest, onto it's back, beside its leg, delivering a flurry of powerful kicks and punches each time. He saw the Velocity approaching out of the corner of his vision, and Kitty and Logan phasing out of the ground a few feet away. His anger flared again when he saw that Kitty was favoring her left arm, and she looked dazed. He also felt releived that she was alive. He teleported to a standstill a couple feet away, panting. The robot was dented and damaged, the dents from his own furious kicks and punches adding to the claw marks Logan had dealt it. Kurt bent and picked up a steel bar from the leftovers of the X-Van. He walked forwards. "You… _never! Touch! My! Katzchen!" _He accented every word with a blow. The robot teetered a bit. It fell to one knee, swaying slightly. He pulled the bar back like a baseball bat and swung full force at it's head. The mini-sentinel was suddenly headless, and a small, roundish dark shape was sent hurling into the building. A few seconds later the head bounced off the pavement a hundred feet away. Kurt was panting heavily now. He dropped the bar as the robot fell to the ground. Jean, Storm and John ran out of the Velocity. John ran up to him while Jean and Storm went to make sure Logan and Kitty were all right. John looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "That was quite a show." He jammed his hands in his pockets that he had insisted be sewn into his uniform. Which was really just a light blue shirt with the X-Man X on it and a pair of black jeans. "You ok, mate?" Kurt looked at him wearily. "Ja. Zhat zhing blew up ze X-Van and Keety phased through the ground. I didn't see her do it and… vell…" Kurt chuckled in spite of himself. John laughed. "Went macho for your girl, huh?" Kurt turned a darker shade of blue. "Vhat? Keety and I are just friends." John coughed. "Suuuure you are. The one thing you didn't count on was that Scott is a bigger gossip than you think." He turned around. "Now, I gotta go see what the others are planning. You've got someone more important to talk to." As he began walking towards the others, Kitty ran up to him, jumping into his arms. She threw her arms around his neck and planted a passionate kiss right on his lips. Kurt's mind stopped working. Somewhere in his mind he woke up from his little trance. _Kiss her back you dunce!! _Kurt got his arms, legs, chest, lungs, head, tail to work. Then his lips worked and he kissed her back. It was wonderful. His tail twitched erratically behind him. After what seemed like hours she pulled back, exhaling slightly. Kurt looked down at her, still confused. His mouth hung open lopsidedly. Kitty giggled. "So, like, are you just gonna stand there and gawk at me or are you going to-" Kurt cut her off by kissing her again. This time he wrapped his arms around her waist. Kitty put her arms around his neck again and the world fell away. He heard someone clear their throat and he and Kitty leapt apart, both blushing wildly. Logan had his arms crossed and a slight smirk on his face. John had a half smile on his face, and his hands on his hips. "Logan, I do believe you owe me thirty dollars." Kitty glared at both of them. Kurt shook his head. "I'm not even going to ask." He grabbed Kitty's hand and began leading her to the Velocity. "Listen, Keety… I'm sorry. It vas foolish of me to think that you vould care about my physical appearance. Can you forgive me for being a fool? A vonderfully handsome, totally justified fool?" Kitty giggled, taking his arm and leaning her head on his shoulder. "Of course. So… we're officially…"

"Ja."

"And your not so…"

"Nein."

"Good." She smiled. Kurt felt right. Why had he thought that their friendship would end if he tried to make a move? As they sat down in the Velocity Kurt yawned. Kitty giggled. "Like, are you tired from beating the living pulp outta that robot?" Kurt flashed her a fanged smile. "Maybe a little."

* * *

X-23 was barely able to hang onto the sentinel thing (Jean had said over the radio she was calling it a 'Sentinoid') as it thrashed around. This one was easily the size of a truck. Not as big as the original but bigger than the others. This one also had a different faceplate, with a more humanoid appearance. It's body was smoother, and hid more weapons. Even with the team that had stopped the sentinel in the forest by the mansion, along with Rogue and Gambit (Who had previously been guarding the mansion) They didn't have the firepower to stop it. Scott's blasts were no more than beestings, and X-23's claws weren't long enough to do any real damage. As she was sent crashing onto the docks for the third time, the boards creaked. Ignoring the pain in her side she scrambled to her feet and desparately ran for solid ground as boards fell out from below her. As the last board dropped away from under her an ice ramp appeared, leading her right into Bobby's waiting arms. "I guess you could say you've fallen for me, huh?" X-23 smirked a bit. "Very funny. Now put me down." He set her down on the cement with the others and went after it. Gambit walked up next to her. "So, y' know it's either him or ze john boy." X-23 ignored him and crossed her arms, watching Bobby try to make the sentinoid into a senticicle. "Y' know that whoever you choose, ze other will be hurt, non?" X-23 grimaced. "Damn, you must get dat ability t' igno' me from y' papa." X-23 snarled, shoving the cajun back and storming past him. He saw the Velocity speeding towards them from the east. Good, the cavalry. Bobby was skating back towards them, scared. "Jesus! Move, move, get outta the way!" He tumbled onto the ground as the sentinoid slammed into the side of the pier. X-23 ran over to him and helped him to his feet. Now, they were on even ground. Scared civilians and dockworkers were running everywhere. A storm gathered, and lightning bolts slammed into the sentinoid's arms and chest. The battle raged on, for hours. The sun was long gone, the moon high overhead. They all fought. They all sustained injuries. She dimly remembered Rogue saying something about being able to try out her flight and strength for the first time. She remembered Amara falling away from a bolt of energy, and Logan cutting at it's heel. After what seemed like days the sentinel finally shuddered, and started to fall. It staggered. But it fired one last salvo of flak lasers that flew into the X-men. They all scattered. X-23 heard a sizzling sound. She whirled around as she heard an anguished cry. She saw John, Strafe, holding his head over his eye. An entire section of his steel helmet had been eaten away.

* * *

E.I.: There you have it folks, another thrilling chapter in this series. And trust me when I say there'll be many many more to come… manymanymanymanymanymanyMANY-

(Naruto): OK, JEEZ, we get it. Damn.

E.I.: Ehe… ¬.¬ my bad.

(Naruto): Well anyways, I'll wrap this one up, 'ttebayo. Well, John just got a hole blown in his head! –strangled laugh as he tries to stop himself from laughing out loud-

E.I.: You think that's funny?

(Naruto): Yes.

E.I.: That's screwed up.

(Naruto): Hey, I've seen some screwed up shit, man. Ever met Orochimaru?

E.I.: No, I don't make a point of going out and searching for pedophiles.

(Naruto): Oohoho, touche. Well anyways, next chaper's special guest has a metal-

E.I.: Shhh! Don't say anything, foo!

(Naruto): Fine, whatever. Stay tuned, Dattebayo!


	9. Four Letter Word

(A/N: Hey, everyone! Today I have with me two brothers who are dedicated to their cause. We're a little short on time here, so-

Mysterious Newcomer 1: WHAT? WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT, HALF- PINT, SHRIMPY!? I AUGHT TO GRIND YOUR-

Mysterious Newcomer 2: No, brother, short on _time!_

M.N.1: oh… well uh… Al, back me up here?

M.N.2: Brother!

M.N.1: Agh! Crap!

Epsilon Indi: Naw, it's perfectly all right. Well, our two Mystery Newcomers are Edward and Alphonse Elric, or the FullMetal Alchemists!

(Ed): Ah, well…

(Al): Don't look embarrased brother, it's all right.

E.I.: (O.O) You two sure like to talk…

(Ed): Well anyways uhh… the story, right…

E.I.: Yeah, so who is your guys' favorite character?

(Ed and Al both): Scott!

E.I.: Really? Not John? I mean, with all his like… the metal… and..

(Receives a a glare from Ed)

E.I.: -Ahem- Nevermind! Why is Scott your favorite charater?

(Ed): He's tall!

(Al): He shoots laser beams from his eyes!

E.I.: Well, anyways, let's get to the story.

E.I.: Oh, by the way, Nightcrawler's Shadow, thank you so much for the support. And what's a Mary Sue?

John had staggered over to a bench, hand still clamped to the gaping hole in his head. He didn't dare change out of his armored form. X-23 was sitting next to him,her hand over his. "John? John, can you hear me?" His head was throbbing. "Arc welder. Arc cutter. _Now!" _She scrambled away and John frowned. He hadn't meant to be so bitter. But his head was throbbing horribly. It seemed like hours untill X-23 came back with the others, carrying an arc welder and an arc cutter. Beast frowned. "What exactly do you intend to do, John?" He stood aside as John ignored his pain and the blood running down his face, which looked like a helmet to everyone else, and staggered over to the sight of the destroyed Sentinoid. He bent over and used the Arc cutter to remove most of the iridescent steel plate that covered its head, the domed part. Then, using the Arc cutter, he made a shape that would conform to the hole in his head. It would look roughly like a round bottomed triangle from the front, but in reality it would cover all of the top of and the side of his head, along with the back. He then superheated the edges with the arc welder and affixed the plate over the section of his head that had been effectively blown off. He ignored the momentary discomfort. He armored down cautiously. He reached his hand up to feel his left eye. He could no longer see from that side so he needed to be sure. Sure enough, his fingers brushed a steel section where he had welded the plate on. He kept his hand moving, up to his black raven hair. Luckily the plateWhen he turned back around he saw the others looking at him funny. John snorted. "What? I'm not going to walk around with an enormous hole in my head. That would be ridi-" He fell silent as X-23 wrapped her arms around him. He raised his eyebrow, his one remaining eye wide. "Idiot. Never do that again." John blinked, looking down at X-23. He was vaguely aware of Bobby storming off towards the X-Jet. "Ah… I…" X-23 let go of him and walked towards the Velocity. John blinked again, stunned. Scott walked up to him, eyebrows furrowed behind his visor. "You ok, John?" John shook his head to clear it, rubbing his right eye. "I'm fine." Jean walked up beside Scott, putting an arm around his waist and frowning worriedly at John. "That was a little hasty, don't you think? I mean, we could have…" John nodded as she realized his dilemma. "There's no way to heal that hole. Welding that plate onto my head was the easiest option." Kurt and Kitty came up on John's left and the New Mutants on his right. Kurt smirked a bit. "Vell, now you'll _never _be normal! It's settled!" They laughed. Amara, the youngest of the students besides Jamie (Who was not old enough to come on missions), put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god, John… does it hurt?" John had grown close to Amara, like a brother and sister. He had even taken to calling her sis. "Nah, it just itches. Lemme ask you though, is the edge smooth? I don't want a jaggedy plate stuck to my head." They all laughed again and Gambit sighed. "Oh L'amour, did y' see da way X-23 went straight to da guy? She's got it hot for de platehead!" Gambit, Rogue and Kurt laughed, but Scott sighed and Jean and Kitty nodded. John's face turned a curious fog- hap grey color. Amara burst out into laughter, and Rahne giggled as they made their way to the X-Jet. "John, are you blushing?" He coughed. Jean raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly. "Oh, yes he is!"

* * *

Kurt spent the next day with Kitty. He had found his right spot in the world. Currently they were sitting on the floor by the couch watching a movie for movie night. Kitty had her head in his lap, and he was lightly rubbing her shoulder. His tail was waving lazy circles in the air next to him. Onscreen, James Bond crashed through a window and to safety. Kurt wasn't really paying attention. His ears were still ringing after Logan had screamed at John for welding the plate onto his face. Said boy was sprawled out on another section of the couch, Ipod headphones in and music blaring. He was.. somehow, fast asleep, despite the volume of his music. Kurt sighed. Kitty looked up at him, her asure eyes sparkling slightly. "Something on your mind?" Kurt made sure that John was asleep. "It's X-23 and John. Zhey're dancing around each other and it's maddening." Kitty giggled. "You do see the irony in that statement right?" Kurt smirked. "Ja, but zhats besides the point." Gambit sprinted into the room, laughing raucously. He leapt over the couch, slid around the corner to the kitchen and out of sight, but his laughter echoed around the house. Rogue came sprinting after him, her hair dyed green, except for her white stripe of hair. "REMY YOU SON OF A _BITCH!" _Kurt's eyes widened as Gambit came speeding back in the room, still laughing. "Ah, She loves me, non?" He sped off into the back of the house. Rogue stopped in the living room and slammed down on the couch next to John, who woke up with a start. "Son of a-!" He looked over and saw Rogue. "Jeez… I suppose Bobby did that huh?" Rogue snarled at him. "Pull out yer earphones shellhead, yer yellin'!" John blinked and pulled out his headphones. "What?" He said in a quieter voice. "Oh, f'rget it." Rogue crossed her arms. "it was Remy, not Bobby." John yawned. "Why?" Bobby walked into the room, saw Rogue, and paled. "Ohshit. Rogue, I'm SO sorry!" Rogue shot him a glare so fierce it could melt him. "YOU did this? Ah'm gonna skin you!" She stood up menacingly. Bobby squeaked. "No wait! I-it was ment for John, I swear!" John sighed. Kurt grimaced. Bobby was still jealous of him. "Vill you give it a rest already, Bobby. You have the entire _verdammnt _house suffering for your jealousy of John." John raised his remaining eyebrow. "Jealous you say?" Bobby glared at Kurt. "Vas?" Kurt shrugged, and kitty giggled innocently. John shrugged. "Well, all I know is that I'm going back to sleep." And with that he put his headphones back in his ears and went to sleep. Rogue pushed up her sleeves. "If Y'all would kahndly excuse me." She started to walk menacingly towards Bobby. Kurt shrugged. "But of cource, _mein schwester._ Have a good time." Bobby made the new land-speed record as he ran from the room, Rogue hot on his heels.

* * *

X-23 had gone straight to her room. She was so confused. Bobby, or John? Even from the confines of her room, she heard how Bobby had tried to turn John's hair green and ended up turning Rogues. She was stuck. She'd known Bobby for longer… but… X-23 shook her head. She couldn't decide. Not at that moment anyways. She closed her eyes and lay back on her bed, her brown hair splaying out around her head. "What am I gonna do?" She asked herself. Less than a month ago she had been without these goddamn emotions… well, except for sadness. But Logan had finally gotten her to join the institute… and she was happy here. X-23 rolled over and buried her face in the pillow. Someone knocked lightly on her door. "Who's there?" She asked. "It's Jean. Can I come in?" X-23 thought about this for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so." Jean walked into the room, brushing a strand of red hair out of her face. X-23 envied Jean. She had Scott, she was beautiful, and- Jean sat down next to her. "Oh, stop it. You're just as beautiful as I am. At least… John thinks so." X-23 looked at her with some surprise. "He what?" Jean looked uncomfortable. "I… I don't like doing this, but you should know… John really… well I think he loves you, X."

* * *

Pietro flicked a spoonful of peanut butter at the Blob and watched him squirm. He smirked. "Anyone other'n me bored outta their freaking minds?" Todd raised his hand. Lance raised his hand. Even Wanda raised her hand. The erstwhile leader of the Brotherhood sighed. "Ever since Dad turned goody goody we've been outta a job. Where is Mystique? She should have something interesting for us to do." Said blue-skinned shape shifter walked in at that moment. "Look sharp, boys." She gave an evil smirk. "We've got a job."

* * *

(Woohoo! There's the next chapter. Again, What is a Mary Sue?)


	10. Fire and Ice

(A/N: And with this Author's Note, I declare the 10th chapter of Arrival officially started! Thanks to all the faithful readers I've got right now… Well the faithful readER. Yes, that's you, Nightcrawler's Shadow. Thank you infinitely, by the way… and tortured shadows? Pure awesomeness. But who's to say more won't come over time? Anyways. No, John will not be a Mary Sue… well he might die at the end . for the hell of a good story [probably not], but there's plenty of angstness to come… And there's still the issue of whether X-23 will end up with Bobby or John. I don't particularly not like the Iceman, but I'm bashing the crap out of him in this story because I need someone to be in a love triangle with X-23 and let's face it… Sam and Roberto just don't make the cut when it comes to that. They're good characters sure, but there's the whole new mutant thing, as opposed to the fact that X-23 blends seamlessly into the original X-Men like John does. Whoa… what the hell am I talking about here? ON TO THE STORY!)

* * *

"He _what?_" Jean squirmed uncomfortably, as innocent as she was she didn't like putting people on the spot… especially not X-23, so new to the institute. She didn't like doing this to John either. X-23 looked at Jean with a blank look. "He can't." "He does." "He shouldn't." Jean sighed. "You sound like Kurt." X-23 wrinkled her nose. "What is that supposed to mean?" Jean smiled a bit. "Kurt is always worried about how people will react to his appearance. He thinks that he deserves his treatment because of the way he looks. At least, he used to. Now he understands that it's not his fault, he needs to be accepting of himself. You're scared of who you _were…_ Key difference between who you are and who you were, is that who you were is in the past. Who you are is in the present. And you don't have to worry about the future yet… One of John's favorite things to say is The reason the past is called the past is because we've passed it. And we don't need to worry about the future because it hasn't happened yet… and you need to enjoy the present because that's what it is… a present." Jean smiled as she saw her words hit home. She herself took a moment to reflect on how much everyone had learned from John in the short time he'd been at the mansion. He was so far from perfect… it was hard to believe that he could seem so benign. Jean put her hand comfortingly on X-23's shoulder, before leaving her to contemplate what she had just said. Jean walked from her room to Scotts. She knocked on the door. "Scott? You ready to go yet?" Scott's voice sounded from inside. "Agh… fu- oh, Jean! Yeah, just a second, mkay?" Jean giggled. "We're just going to dinner, what are you fussing so much about?" She opened the door to find Scott trapped with his tie looped around his neck, with his hand caught between his tie and his face and neck, knocking his glasses askew while at the same time pinning them to his head. Jean couldn't help it. The sight was so absurd she began laughing hard. Scott groaned. "Heeeey… help?" Jean recovered from her fit of laughter after three minutes and walked over to Scott, wiping tears of mirth off her face. She adjusted his tie, freed his hand, and last of all fixed his glasses, planting a light kiss on his lips as she did so. "Ready to go now, Scott?" Scott nodded, smiling. "You?" Jean nodded. They went to the garage, got in Scotts car, and drove off to enjoy their night.

* * *

Bobby was done with John, in every way, shape and form. That sone of a bitch had 1) invaded like a plague, taking over everyone, 2) manifested (As much as he hated to admit it) a sick power, and 3) Stolen X-23 from _right under his goddamn nose! _Not to mention he seemed like a lousy fighter, and everyone seemed to love him anyways! Bobby wished he could kick his ass... he wouldn't even need his powers. Bobby growled and froze his soda. Sam looked at him quizzically. "You ok dude? You seem angsty." Bobby grimaced at his friend. "Then you've been hitting the wall too hard in the Danger Room again." Sam raised his eyebrows at his friends unusual hostility. "You sure?" Amara sighed. "Relax Sam, he's just jealous of John." Bobby whipped around to face Amara. "I am _NOT!_" He slammed his fist on the table, freezing the soup she was eating. She blew on it to melt it and looked at him critically. "Come on Bobby. Everyone else likes him. Even Logan likes him. What's your deal with him? Is it just that X-23 likes _him _instead of _you_?" Bobby sighed. "Your just saying that cause your basically his little sister." Amara made a face. "So? And for the record, Bobby, your powers totally have him at a disadvantage." Bobby blinked, surprised that she had just touched on every one of the subjects that he had been brooding over. "It's not just Jean. All girls are psychic." Amara said disconcertingly. Bobby decided that would be the best time to take his leave, he had to prank Rogue to get back at her for beating the crap out of him, even though it had been an accident that he had dyed her hair green. It had already worn out, after all. He had decided to change her X-outfit. He took his spraypaint, and grabbed the brown cargo jacket he had knicked. He cackled to himself and raced down to the subbasements.

* * *

Remy plopped down on the couch next to Kurt and Kitty. Kurt was gently running his hand down Kitty's head. Kitty looked up as Gambit sat down. John was sitting, and sleeping, where he normally did. On the couch, earphones blaring what he had dubbed 'super metal' ("It's an amazing playlist of Danzig, Shinedown, Metallica, Alice in chains, and Incubus." Gambit of course had no idea who any of those people were). "Hey, de 'appy couple, non?" Kirry giggled a bit, kissing Kurt's cheek. "Happy as we'll ever be." Kurt sighed. "Ja, eet's amazing. She, ze lovestruck beauty, moi, ze vonderfully handsome unt debonair blue elf." Kitty giggled, and Kurt kissed her full on the lips. Gamit sighed. "Oh, L'amour, da fervor o' love is in de air. Even da shellhead 'as a girl… well, if 'e can get 'er away from de iceman." Gambit nodded towards John as he said this. Kitty made a face. "Like, Bobby has no place going after X-23 like that, yaknow? He only took notice after John arrived." Gambit sighed. "Ah, and de Gambit will soon have 'is Rogue… and all will be well in de mansion. Myes, all will be well…" He sunk lower in his seat, crossed one leg over the other and pressed the tips of his fingers together in a very professor like fashion. Kurt laughed. Kitty sighed. "You didn't even listen to me didja?" Kurt chuckled, pulling her face towards him. "I leestened to you, Keety." She smiled at him. "Yeah, right." Kurt shrugged. "Nnh. Worth a shot." He winked at Remy and then 'Bamfed' with Kitty to parts unknown. Remy sat back, kicking his feet up and putting one arm over the back of the couch. There was still enough space for one person, even with his armored boots on the couch. His unspoken and unconsciously thought wish was granted. Rogue sat down there, and Remy flicked his red eyes in her direction. "Whatever it was, It was de iceman, not me." Rogue giggled a bit. "Ah'm not alwayws out ta getcha, Remy." "No? You sure?" Rogue smirked. "Would you prefer that ah was?" "Maybe, _cherrie. _Maybe."

* * *

(There ya go, another horribly awesome chapter. I wish I could have made it longer but my arms are burning. See you next chapter!)


	11. Music

(A/N: John and Bobby are headed for a crash course, Bobby being the crash-ee. What will happen when they collide? It won't happen this chapter, it's long enough as it is!)

John pulled out his guitar. _His guitar._ The only thing he had brought with him to the institute, and he hadn't even used it yet. John sighed. He didn't want to have an audience. But everyone was inside at the moment. So, turning on his battery- amp and checking the tone of his guitar, John smiled a bit to himself. He pulled out his pick, a standard black one, and began to strum. Meet Virginia, by Train, he decided. His strumming pattern changed as his fingers found the right frets and he began to pick out the proper sequence. In spite of himself he started to sing, his back to a tree, facing away from the institute. "She doesn't own a dress. Her hair is ne-ver a mess, if ya catch her stealing she won't con-fess… She's beautiful…" John had forgotten where he had learned this song. He knew tons of them, most self-taught heavy metal anthems that he had peiced together through his Ipod. When the drumbeat for the song would have kicked in, he slapped his hand on the guitar on his downward strokes to simulate it. "She smokes a pack a day, oh wait, that was me, but anyway… She doesn't care a thing about that, hey… She thinks I'm wonderful…" John was getting caught up now. He couldn't remember the last time he had played his guitar. It felt good, too. He'd always loved his guitar, ratty though it was, and took pretty good care of it. "Meet Virginia." John smiled to himself. He could change the words a bit… 'Virginia' wouldn't mind… besides… That wasn't really who he was singing this for, was it? John had to admit it to himself. "She never compromises, never liked babies or sur-prises. Never wears high heels-" A sound behind him made his fingers stop moving, killing the notes even as they started to ring. John whirled around. Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, Jean, Scott, Amara, Sam… everyone in the mansion had come out to hear him play. "Oh, son of a bitch." He scrambled to his feet, turning off the amp. _Everyone_ had come out to hear him play. Even professor X. X-23 was standing silently next to Logan. John stuttered a bit. "I… well I was just…" Kurt stepped forwards with a lopsided grin. "Vhy the hell didn't you tell us you could play like zhat?" John grimaced. "Because it wasn't important." The professor wheeled forwards. "I disagree. That is quite the talent you have." John sighed explosively. "It's not that good." He picked up the amp and slung the guitar over his shoulder. With that he made for the mansion.

* * *

Kurt frowned. "Did I say somezhing wrong?" He asked. Jean sighed. "No, my guess is he came out here to be alone." X-23 frowned, crossing her arms. The professor spoke up. "Some things bring up painful memories." Jean nodded. "I caught a glimpse of his thoughts… Something about a 'Rochelle' and that he wasn't a street performer anymore." Bobby, who had been glaring at where John had entered the mansion, scoffed. "The hell? So he just walks away from us? What a jerk." Suddenly, 15 glares were focused on Bobby. The Professor was literally the only one not glaring at him. But X-23 pushed him back. "He grew up _on the street, _remember? Oh, wait, there's no way you would know that, you never actually _got to know him did you?_" With that she turned and stomped towards the mansion. The rest of the X-Men began to disperse, still throwing odd looks at Bobby. Bobby knew he should probably be humbled. But all he felt was more pissed off. He was going to beat the living _crap_ out of John. Sam laughed, slapping him on the back. "Dude, you just got _owned! _You want to make yourself some ice for that burn?" Bobby froze Sam's feet together and walked towards the mansion. "H-hey! What the hell, bobby!?" Bobby ignored him, tromping towards the mansion. Amara shouldered by him, and he knew that X-23 wasn't the only one upset by what he had done. Kitty walked next to him. She blinked. "Like, what _is _your issue with John anyways? You're the only one who doesn't like him. Come on, dude, the mansion's fifteen- and- oh on that. Everyone here likes everyone else. Except for you and John, who doesn't hate _you_ at all." Bobby scoffed. "Oh, yeah, I bet you were _totally _accepting of Kurt when you first met _him._" Kitty grimaced at him. "Cheap shot, Drake. Like… you're becoming a jerk, Bobby. I'm not the only one who sees it." With that she walked away and Bobby was left to his own devices.

* * *

John pitched his amp in the closet and sat on the bed, looking out the window, back to the door. He had moved his bed under the window so that he could sit on the queen size and look at the sun rising and setting. Truth was, he hadn't slept in a couple of days. His past was catching up with him, it seemed. John sighed explosively. He drew back his arm to chuck his guitar out the window. Then he heard a soft voice from behind him. "Don't do that, John." Startled, John jumped, dropping his guitar and spinning around. X-23 was standing in his doorway, arms folded over her chest. "Who's Rochelle, John?" She asked quietly. John was always surprised by how her voice sounded when she was talking normally, not trying to prove a point or being all logan-esque. John shook his head. "Nobody important." X-23 leaned against the doorframe. John looked at her. "You can come in, by the way." She stepped into the room, sitting on the bed next to him. She frowned at him, her brown eyes sparkling with concern, and her usual hard contradictory gaze had softened. John frowned back slightly. "What?" She blinked. "Why don't you want to tell me?" "Because she's nobody of importance!" "She is, and you know it and I know it." John sighed explosively. "Fine. You want to know? Fine. Rochelle was the last person who saw me play the guitar for any reason other than to get money on the street." John was unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "I don't give free performances. That was the last thing she ever said to me. She took my… my _gift_..." He bit the word out through clenched teeth. "And turned it into something SHE could profit from. Same old sotry, everywhere I had gone… and I made the half- assed mistake that she would be any different." He tossed his guitar into the closet. A string snapped when it landed, making a painful twang sound as it did. X-23 sighed, putting one of her hands on his. "John, nobody here would do that to you. You know that." John grimaced. "Bobby would." X-23 visibly flinched. "Bobby is… different." John looked at her. "Why exactly did you come here, anyways? Shouldn't you be making sure Bobby doesn't blow a gasket after he's seen that I'm 'just that much closer to being perfect'?"

* * *

X-23 felt herself struggling with the decision at hand. Bobby, or John? She knew that whoever she chose, the other would be hurt. That was one of the inherent risks though, she knew. She had never hesitated to take risks before though, why now? "I…" She had to say something. Goddamn it, why was this so hard? She'd killed people, she'd infiltrated hundreds of buildings, without any trouble, so why was this any different. John looked awat from her. She put her hand on his shoulder. "John, I don't care about Bobby." She made up her mind. As he started to look, surprisedly, back towards her, she kissed him, hard, on the lips.

* * *

Kurt found Kitty sitting under a tree outside. Rahne, Sam and Roberto were playing Football with Scott, Gambit and Beast. "Geuten Tag, Katzchen." She looked up at him and smiled his favorite smile. "Hi." She scooted up a bit so Kurt could sit down behind her. Once he had taken his place behind her she leaned back, putting her head on his chest. Kurt smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist while she rubbed the fur on his shin. Kurt's tail coiled and uncoiled as he watched the football game. "Hey, Kurt?" "Ja?" "Can I ask you something?" "You just did, I believe." Kitty giggled. "You know what I meant." Kurt nodded. "In zhat case, be my guest." Kitty sighed. "Who do you think X-23 will choose, Bobby or John?" Kurt frowned. Kissing the top of her head, Kurt thought for a moment and finally said "It is none of our buisness, vhether she chooses John or Bobby. Whoever she chooses, will make her happy." Kitty was silent for a moment. "You just said something like, totally profound, fuzzy." Kurt gave a slight smile that only let one of his fangs show. "Did I now? Perhaps zhere's more to ze fuzzy dude zhen being outrageously handsome unt debonair." Kitty giggled. "Maybe." She curled into him a bit. "I love being with you like this." She rested her cheek on his chest, and Kurt moved his arms from her waist and wrapped them around her shoulders. "Ich Liebe dich, Katzchen."

* * *

Several things happened in the days to come. John had three attacks, all set off when he was hit in the back of the head by something or another, Kitty and Kurt spent more time together and with that they began to do something everyone found annoying. They began to finish each other's sentences. Everyone knew it would be a brief phase but nobody could stand it while it was going on. Everything was well in the world of the X-Men. The only mishap happened on the first day back to school. John was walking to his locker, a bandage taped firmly over his eye to hide the plate that dissapeared beneath his raven colored hair when he wasn't in armored mode, and thought about his kiss with X-23 a couple of days earlier. After she had kissed him, she hastily left. John knew she was waiting to see what he would do next, and John was thinking about just this when one of the Jocks he had whupped confronted him. Followed by four more. John blinked, looking around at all of them. The ringleader, not Sinclair as he had not been seen at the school at all recently, stepped forwards. "We've got a debt to settle with you, freak." John blinked. "Who, me?" John had spent his life on the street, picking pockets and locks and playing people he wasn't. He knew he could fool these goons. Putting a bit of slouch into his posture, letting his pack slide lazily down his arm, John did what he liked to call 'playing stupid.' "Ah don' quite reckon ah know what yer talkin' 'bout mistuh." John said, letting some of Rogue's southern drawl slide into his voice. He was a very good imitator. "I jus' transferred here from Texas an' Ah'm not quite acquainted wit' the-" The Jock cut him off by grabbing his shirt, and slamming him into his own locker. John feigned fear. "Oh gawd, they're gon' kill me! Oh gawd, oh gawd!" John threw his arms up in front of his face. He knew that if Rogue _ever _caught him using this accent, she'd run him through with his own guitar. So he let himself whimper. His ploy worked, because one of the jocks put a hand on the leader's arm. "Kane, I don't think it's him, man. That other kid was all like… not southern." John shifted uncomfortably. "See? Yer friend knows it, smart fella. Reminds me of this guy back in Texas that-" Again the jock cut him off. "Shut up, freak. You may not be the freak we're looking for but your still a freak." He shoved him once more and let him go. John waited until they'd left and stood up straight, sneering slightly. He brushed himself off. He turned to leave and came face to face with the one person he'd hoped not to encounter. Rogue. "Oh shi- Rogue, you scared me." Rogue raised an eyebrow. "Yer accent's mighty fine, shellhead." John cleared his throat. "Ok, look, I do the stupid act with any accent I can come up with, it's just that in that… particular situation the southern one was the farthest from how I actually sound." Rogue raised an eyebrow. "relax, John. Ya look more confused 'n a fish in a desert." John sighed, walking towards his next class, Rogue following him. He found, that once he took the time to look around, he had one or more x-man in each of his classes. He shared his last class of the day with Rogue. John sighed. "Hey, I've had a long week. Just think, less than a month ago I was homeless, powerless, and dying from some obscure dizease. It's been a rough transition." Rogue giggled a bit. "Ah can imagine. Poor Johnny, comin' off the cold, hard street and to the mansion. It musta been sooo horrible for ya." John chuckled in spite of himself. He was going to reply when her face hardened. John turned to see what she was looking at. Pietro Maximoff, Quicksilver, and Toad and Blob. Lance and the Scarlet Witch were nowhere to be found, however. They saw the two of them, and John felt like there wasn't going to be any happy passage through here.

* * *

John blinked as they moved in front of Rogue. Pietro smirked at her. "Hey, it's the rogue, how ya doin'? Miss us much?" Rogue snorted. "You wish." Pietro feigned as if he was hurt. "Oh, your words hurt so much." The others snickered. Rogue made a face. John leaned against one of the lockers. "Ah notice you're one goon short of a pack there, Pietro. I still don't count Wanda as one of ya because she's got some brain in her head." Pietro shrugged. "That'sforustoknowandyoutofindout. And believe me, you _will _find out." Pietro's gaze flickered to John. "Who's your new boytoy?" John _felt _Rogue redden. "Lemme ask ya, newguy, does her carpet match her drapes?" Todd and the Blob laughed raucously. Blob clapped Pietro on the back. "Good one, pietro." He chortled. John smirked. "Very funny. It's a shame you have to hide behind your goonies to talk to us." Pietro grimaced. "You don't even know. I could run circles around you." John straightened from the lockers. "Ho, all right. Go ahead. Make my day." Rogue, still beet red, turned to John. "Naw, John, it's all raht." John stepped in front of her. "Oh no, I want to see what makes this lowlife worthy of notice. And if Gambit were here he'd be a bloody smear on the floor anyways." He saw Pietro flinch when he said 'Gambit'. "Well? I'm waiting, speedstick…" With a furious snarl Pietro slapped Blob's shoulder. "Kick his _ASS!_ Blob cracked his knuckles and swung at John. John moved sideways with lightning speed. "Hey, slow down there buddy you don't even know what I _do _yet. I'm not just another pretty face." He grabbed Blob's arms and pulled downwards, using his power and flooring the gargantuan tub of lard. There was a rumble as he hit the ground. The toad leapt at John. "Why you lousy- aah!" John had sidestepped, grabbed his leg, and threw him to the ground. Blob got up and backed away. "Maan… my head hurts…" John sneered into Pietro's face. "Well? You going to try your luck? Or are you going to back down… speedstick?" John saw Pietro boiling. Just then Lance came up. He smirked at Rogue and saw John and Pietro face to face. He stepped up next to him. "Who's this guy?" He asked Pietro. John held out his hand to Lance. "Hi, my name's John, I'm the resident new guy at the mansion. And it seems, the only one to piss off speedstick here-" Pietro swung a fist at John, who ducked back just in time to avoid it. "Stop CALLING me that!" Lance blinked surprisedly at his leader. From the look on his face John could tell that he wasn't prone to outbursts like that. Lance put a hand on Pietro's shoulder. "Pietro, cool it. Besides, we got it, so let's get outta here." Lance muttered the last part and John barely caught what he said. Pietro smirked at John. "We'll resolve this another time." And with that, they walked away. John called after him. "You damn right we will!" With that he turned to Rogue. She was still a bit red. "Sorry, I just couldn't help myself." Rogue shook her head. "No problem, shuga'. Let's just get to class." John noticed that she had started calling everyone that. 'shuga'. Without thinking about it too much they made their way to class… even if they were thirty minutes late.

* * *

(And with that I conclude my longest chapter yet. Enjoy!)


	12. Drama

(A/N: Things are boiling beneath the surface, with the Brotherhood's mysterious plot, John and X-23's kiss, and Bobby's anger all pushing themselves to the front, I'm going all out! And with plenty of chapters to go, I might add.)

The rest of the day passed relatively, at least, without incident. John received a couple glares as he and Rogue walked out to Scotts car, but other than that nothing was out of the ordinary. As they reached Scotts car Rogue frowned. Something was wrong, she knew it. She couldn't put her finger on it though. Wait, Scott wasn't there. Where could he possibly be? Was he held in class for something? That seemed to be the most likely answer. John sighed. "I'll go see if he's in his classroom, huh? Be right back." He left his back and walked back towards the school, falling into the half-limp he walked in usually. Rogue frowned. "Hey, is it just me, or does John walk a little funny?" Jean looked up from the book she was reading. "Yeah, I was gonna ask him before he went off to find Scott. It might just be from an old injury that didn't heal properly." X-23 slid off the hood and walked around the car to talk with them. "I think he mentioned it to me once… something about getting hit by a kid on a motor scooter. We'll ask him when he gets back with Scott." Amara came up in time to hear this. "_If_ he gets back. John only has two speeds: Slow and slower." Rogue laughed at this. She knew it was true. But at the same time she also knew how fast his reflexes were. And now the Brotherhood knew. Wait. Rogue slapped her hand to her forehead. "Oh damn!" Jean blinked. "What's wrong? Your not getting a crush on him too, are you?" The group giggled, except for X-23, who blushed. "Hey!" Amara giggled some more. "Oh, come on, you don't think any of us know where you disappeared to?" They all giggled some more. Rogue put her hand over her mouth. "No, what ah mean is that we ran into the Brothahood t'day. They're stirrin' something up, that's fa sure." She frowned, trying to figure out what they were up to exactly. She turned as she saw John and Scott trekking back towards them. Well, now they could talk.

* * *

Or could they? Scott was driving the convertible home, with himself, Jean, Kurt, Kitty and Rogue, and they had just started to talk about this when a large mass moved onto the road. "Damn it!" Scott spun the wheel to the side, to no avail. _We are so screwed._ He winced and awaited the imminent impact, but it never came. There was a 'bamf' and a weightless sensation, then a loud crunch. When he opened his eyes, he was suspended ten feet off the ground, Kurt and Kitty appearing on the ground below. He looked to his right and saw Jean, focusing, holding both him and rogue over the Blob, who had ran into the middle of the road. As Jean set them down there was a sound of a whip and his glasses dissapeared off his face. The beam plowed into Kurt, dropping him. He rolled to his feet and snarled at Blob. "Kurt, Run!" Kitty squealed, but a wave of earth and rock slammed into her, knocking her unconscious. Avalanche smirked, and Toad appeared, clutching Cyclop's glasses. Scott, luckily, still had his visor on him. He slid it on, but a flash of teal slammed into him, and the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was a shadowy figure holding Rogue in the air by the neck, and Jean dropping to the ground insensate. He heard a 'Bamf' and then nothingness consumed him.

* * *

"The brotherhood… _kidnapped _them?" John blinked, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "How?" Storm shook her head. "We do not know, John. Kurt was only awake long enough to tell us that and then he passed out from the strain of so much teleporting." John heard the strain in her own voice. Beast was there, Logan was even there, both clothed in their X-outfits. X-23 was sitting next to him, frowning slightly. Bobby was seated across the table from him, and Amara was on his other side. She put a hand to her mouth. "Oh my god, what are we going to do?" He reassuringly patted her shoulder. "Don't worry about it." Kurt walked into the room, looking rested, if a bit distressed. "Ve vill do somezhing." The professor was at his side. He nodded. "We're going to attack this problem on two fronts. Logan nodded. "Now yer talkin' chuck. I'll round up-" The professor shook his head. "No, Logan. I actually believe this is an ideal time to test Kurt's leadership skills. "Vhas?!" Kurt looked at the professor dumbfounded. "Me? I have no experience! Vhat are ve going to do if I'm not good enough. John shook his head. "You can do it mate." He could sense his friends trepidation. Kurt took a deep breath. "All right. Let's go to vork."

* * *

After using Cereboro, Professor X detected two incredibly powerful mutant signatures from inside the Bayville Great Mall. Kurt didn't like the sound of this… it sounded like the mutant he had seen covered in metal was at the mall, along with one they didn't know. Kurt separated them into three teams. Himself and Logan would make up the scouting and infiltration team. As much as he didn't want to do it, he put Iceman and Strafe on the same team with Storm and Beast. They would be the main force. He put Wolvesbane, Magma, Sunfire, Berserker and Cannonball on defense of the mansion while they were gone. Jamie was also defending the house, and he was excited to be finally helping with a mission. Kurt grimaced. "John, Bobby, Herr Ororo unt Herr McCoy, I'll be counting on you to vork your vay inside vonce ve provide our distraction." He looked at professor X, who smiled and nodded encouragingly. Kurt took a deep breath and turned to Logan. "Herr Logan, are you ready to scout ze location?" Wolverine's only reply was to pull his mask over his face. "Let's go, Elf. I ain't got the time to daudle." He and Logan would be going on Logan's custom harley, the others would be going in the X-Van. As they headed out, they took different routes like Kurt had planned. In his opinion it was a feeble plan. The others thought it was a good idea but Kurt wasn't so sure. They reached the Mall parking complex first, also as planned. _So far so good._ Then again, they hadn't even started the operation for real. Wolverine stepped off the bike and sniffed the air. "All clear. So, Elf. You get a look at whatever did this?" Kurt shook his head. "Nein. All I vas able to determine vas some sort of metal." He had forseen how Logan would react to this. He snarled, probably thinking of Weapon X. Kurt grabbed his shoulders and teleported them on top of the Mall, and they began their recon.

* * *

John let Ororo drive. He had a liscense, but he didn't like to drive. He always went too fast. He also had to sit in the back with Bobby, because Beast was unable to fit in the backseat. They sat in an uncomfortable silence. When they arrived, John wrapped his civilian jacket tighter around himself. The plan was for them to go in under cover of a few civilians and scout the area while Kurt and Logan watched them from above. Beast would stay in the van and monitor their comms. John knew that they were going to do fine. As they walked, in a random order, a random amount of time apart, John kept the limp out of his step as well as he could, checking his image inducer. If any of the brotherhood were looking they'd see his skin color and he'd be immediately given away. John instead put a waltzing stride into his step, like Gambit walked, like he could do anything he wanted. He slid his left hand into his pocket, the leather jacket stretching a bit. With his right he grabbed the lip of the jacket, feeling the cold zipper against his hand. Soon enough he saw Pietro, standing in front of the escalators. He rubbed his jaw, breathing into the clip. "Found speedstick. North end, escalators." His earbud sputtered "Copy that, shellhead. We see ya. Get up there, see if you can find them." John walked up to Pietro. "'Allo, Govnah. Mind pointin' a lost brit towards th' Subway? I'm a tad famished." The british accent slid seamlessly into his throat and out of his mouth. Pietro eyed him curiously. "Do I know you?" John smiled a bit, pushing his shades up on his nose. "Nah, I've just go' one a' those faces, mate." Pietro leaned back. "Second floor." He stepped aside. John tipped his baseball hat. "'Ave a 'appy day, mate." With that he stepped onto the escalator. He immediately noticed Blob sitting inside an 'under construction' part of the mall, an empty pocket where there was no store. "Found Blob… standing in front of the empty space between the Sharper Image and the Discovery store." Kurt hissed over the radio. "Bobby, get over zhere." Another crackle. "Why me?" "Because you are ze closest. Do it _now._" Bobby grumbled something and, after a few minutes, appeared at the top of the escalator. "There you are." John growled. Bobby made a face at him. "Shut up, jackass." "Bite me." X-23 walked up and slapped them both across the back of the head. "Both of you shut up. Bobby, you got a plan?" Bobby snorted. "Why don't you ask your boyfriend?" X-23 looked at him blankly. "Fine. John, you have any ideas?" John frowned. "Gimme a minute." He saw Bobby turn red out of the corner of his eye and smiled inwardly. "Yup, got one." He smirked. "You never leave the dumb one on guard."

* * *

By the time John had explained his plan fully to Kurt, Ororo, and beast ten minutes had ticked by. Then they set their plan into action. X-23 winced when she realized the amount of time that had passed. She was also intrigued to see John act out his part. They were going to feign to be the people who had bought the pocket in between the stores. As John stood, she noticed a change in her posture. He threw back his shoulders a bit, brought his hands together over his stomach, clasping his hands. He futzed with his image inducer and suddenly he was wearing a very slick buisness suit. His hair was slicked back, rather than his usual wild hairstyle. X-23 blinked. "Wow." Bobby had his eyebrows raised. "That's impressive." He didn't even look like John anymore. When he walked it was with the lazy lope of someone of a great power or an enormous ego. "Mright. Let's do this." He raised one eyebrow and let a cocky smirk slide onto his face, striding towards Blob. "Hey, hotshot, can I get a moment of your time?" His voice sounded sleek and debonair, but at a higher, flatter tone than his usual voice. Blob looked up surprisedly. "Whuh, me?" He said dimly. "Yeah, you, bruiser. Hey, I gotta say, you look like you could give the hulk a run for 'is money, maaaan, do you lift trains, big guy?" Blob smiled shyly. "Well ah… sometimes." John laughed. "Ahah, we have a joker. What's your name, buddy?" Blob gave John another dim witted smile. "MY name's Freddy, but you can call me Blob." John frowned. "Oh, why Blob? You can't weigh more than 190 pounds. Well anyways, I'm strayin' from my main point. Blob, my handsome friend, my name is Bobby McCoy, and I'm the new owner of that empty pocket of mall behind you." X-23 was stunned. All this off the top of his head? Incredible. Even Bobby looked impressed. Blob shook his head. "Sorry Mr…. I can't let you-" John cut him off, taking his hand, shaking his hand and patting his forearm. "Thanks, champ, just stand right over here while me and my guards pass through." X-23 watched as the immoveable Blob stepped to the side. They passed by him. "We're in." X-23 muttered. "We're on the way." She gasped. Standing inside were Lance, Pietro, Todd, and… Piotr, Colossus, with the firestarter, Pyro. Tied up and unconscious on the ground were Scott, Jean, Rogue and Kitty. At that precise moment, Pietro looked up and recognized her. "Son of a bitch blob!" X-23 swore and keyed her mic as the brotherhood closed in on her. "Uh… we're gonna need backup…"

* * *

(Here we go, things are heating up again. Next chapter will be up soon.)


	13. Mistakes

(A/N: Finally, another person has read my fanfiction! For those of you reading this and it's a fairly popular fanfic, it was bound to happen. Just not at the time I was writing it! Well, enjoy the next chapter of X-Men: Evolution, Arrival.)

John caught Colossus's fist, and his teeth chattered from the impact, and his body shuddered. He staggered back, waving his arm. "Jesus! Guy punches hard." Bobby was steadily keeping Blob behind a freezing beam while Beast and Ororo held off Lance and Pietro. X-23 had gone to get logan and Kurt. John grimaced. _Time to even the odds._ He armored up, watching Colossus's surprise as John went from looking up at him to looking him in the eye. "Hi, big guy. My name's Strafe." He punched Colossus as hard as he could, putting as much velocity as he could muster behind it. He felt his hand break, and ignored the pain as Colossus was sent hurtling into Pyro, and they both slumped to the ground. Pyro had been knocked insensate, but with a small smirk Colossus got back up. John groaned. "agh… all right, come on." As Colossus charged at him with a battle yell, John used his reflexes to sidestep. He also slapped Colossus's shoulder and increased his velocity enough to stop an eighteen wheeler. He slammed into Blob, and Colossus was knocked out cold by the 'immoveable' part of 'The immoveable Blob.' Blob himself went staggering back a couple of steps. John powered down, grimacing as his knuckles bled. "Feels like punching a brick wall…" As he turned, he was hit by a wave of concrete and rubble, and was pinned to the wall by a part of the floor that had exploded from the ground like a spike. John squirmed a bit. "Goddamn it…" No good. The rock was pushed too firmly against him. Hey, a little help here?" The Blob ran past, chasing Bobby, and smashed the stone. John stood up and dusted himself off. "Huh." With that, he ran at Lance, dimly aware that one of the shoulder pads on his X-shirt had been ripped off. He dodged sideways under a half- assed punch, grabbed Lance around the midsection, and tackled him out of the window into the mall. Luckily the ruckus had scared off most of the customers, but the few lingering around booked. He saw a news helicopter circling outside. Perfect. Now he had to fight sans his armor. The professor had told John that when any sort of newsperson was around, his armor could be misconstrued as a sentinel and the X-Men would be stuck being pinned as the Sentinel's allies. He ducked another of Lance's blows. He was getting tired; John couldn't hold out much longer. He felt his fingers and toes go numb and forcibly pushed his attack down. _Not here._ With a vicious growl borne of desperation he threw a wild punch at Avalanche. Lance laughed, grabbing his arm and swinging him around by it. He let go and sent him crashing through the window of the Subway across from them. One by one the other combatants made their way into the mall. John staggered out of the subway, rubbing his head. "That was a dirty move." Lance took a swing at him that John barely ducked. "We don't play fair, remember X-moron?" John gritted his teeth as his attack threatened to black him out. He took a blow to the stomach and dropped. "You done yet, loser?" Avalanche jeered from over him. John felt his head began to swim, and through gritted teeth he said the only thing he could. "Fuck… you…" With that, he used the last of his strength to deliver a crushing blow that could drop Colossus to Lance. He caught him in the chest, and put every ounce of velocity and momentum he could behind it. With a sound of breaking bone, Lance shot backwards like a rocket, slamming into Pietro, then into Toad, and slamming all three of them through the window of the place they were keeping Kitty and the others. John knew by instinct he had broken four of his ribs. When he was satisfied they weren't getting back up, John slumped against the wall and had the worst attack of his life… and stayed conscious through all of it.

* * *

Bobby watched John take one hit after another. The microchip markings on his arms had started to become faintly luminescent, a sign that he was going to have one of his 'attacks'. A jolt of smug satisfaction raced through him. He was trying to avoid Pietro and freeze the Toad at the same time. He'd almost had them when there was a hoarse shout and Lance came hurtling past him, slamming into both Pietro and Todd and then through the window into the room where they had been keeping Scott and the others. He turned in time to see John spasm and slump against the wall, slide to the floor and twitch violently, eyes squeezed shut. A pang of regret coursed through him, followed by a lazy dismissal of the feeling. _He hasn't even started to get his yet. _Bobby froze the Blob's feet to the ground, and the aggravated behemoth snarled. "Agh! Stupid chicken! Fight me like the little shrimp you are!" Bobby suddenly wished he had John's velocity ability. The Blob was standing in front of the escalator, and a tumble down that could knock him out. In lou of that Bobby got an idea. "All right, fine with me." He froze himself down, and created an ice ramp. Maybe velocity _was _the answer. He saw Ororo and Beast hustle inside to untie the others. Kurts plan wasn't as good as one of Scott's, but it was damn good nonetheless. And now Bobby got to take down the Blob for the first time ever. He ice ramped down the mall away from Blob, ignoring the gargantuan pig's cries of 'Chicken!'. Once he reached the end, he did a hairpin turn, leaping off the wall and back onto the slide, then sped up as fast as he could towards the Blob, forming a solid block of ice on the slide in front of him that was as tall as he was. He heard the blob shout, and dove off the slide to safety as the equivalent of a car moving at 50 miles per hour slammed into him, knocking him off his feet and down the escalator. The ice shattered into a million pieces that rained snow down on them. The newspeople ran up to him as they arrived. "You! Yes, you! Are you one of the X-Men?" Bobby grinned, shrugging lazily. "Well, yeah. I pretty much call the shots around here, and for good reason, as you've seen." He saw John struggling to crawl out of sight as the reporters arrived. "I'm the Iceman, I can create Ice from the moisture in the air. Over here is one of our more… inexperienced recruits, Strafe. He's never fought the brotherhood, and was caught off guard by their abilities. He's not too bright, either." The newspeople looked down sympathetically at John, who looked for all the world as if he was trying to blend in with the grey ground under him. The newspeople nodded at every word he said. "Thank you for the interview, Mr. Iceman." The reporter turned to the camera man. "This is Daryn Stiles for CNN, you've heard it here. The X-Men: Saviors of Bayville." She gestured at Storm and Beast, who were helping Scott, Jean, Rogue and Kitty get their orientation. "When someone's in need, they're on the scene. Once more, this is Daryn Stiles, for CNN, signing off." She turned off the camera and turned to Bobby. "Good job, Kid, that'll give everyone at CNN quite a story." She cast a sympathetic glance at John, who was a deep shade of grey by this time. "Take care of the newbie for us, ok?" Bobby nodded. "Of course. The X-Men take care of our own." He puffed out his chest. The newspeople walked off. Bobby felt accomplished as Scott walked over. "What the hell was that Bobby?" Scott said furiously. Bobby snorted. "I just got us a crapload of publicity. That's what the hell." John was slowly making his way to his feet, a pained look still on his face. His left hand was bleeding from where he had hit Colossus. X-23, running up with Logan and Kurt, saw him and rushed immediately to his side. "Oh my God, John!" He slipped, falling back down, and she knelt next to him. Suddenly Bobby got the feeling he shouldn't have said anything to the reporters.

* * *

About three miles away, a mysterious figure pulled the collar of his jacket up, then flattened it out to smooth it down. He smiled optimistically, running a hand through his white-silver hair. His golden eyes surveyed the city from the hill he stood on. A good place to start, sure. Did he feel sorry for the people who were living here? Yes he did. Extremely so. In fact, a flicker of incredible sorrow washed over his young face. Was it going to stop him? Not even a little bit. Tugging absently at his sleeve, the young man walked down the hill towards the city. It was time for the Arrival.

* * *

John was playing with a paddleball while Beast was checking the bandages on his hand. His concentration lapsed when the apeman prodded one of the tender scars that had been left. "Ow!" He jerked back, waving his hand. Beast gave him a critical stare. "You've had worse. You will have worse. Suck it up." John sighed and stuck out his hand again. Beast prodded his knuckles again, making John flinch a bit. He had claws. They weren't sharp but they were still claws. John retracted his hand. "You done?" Beast nodded. "Everything's fine." John sighed. "I need to find a way to avoid hurting myself every time I punch something when I'm not armored up." John looked at the cloth that Beast was putting in the trash can. An idea formed in his mind. "Hey, can I borrow some cloth?" Beast blinked. "Yeah, sure." He tosed John a coil of it. He tested the springiness of the cloth. Nodding in a satisfied manner John began to wrap the cloth around his hand, forming a tight cloth glove. John smirked. "Eh. Almost perfect." He thought for a moment then reached out and wrapped It farther up his forearm. "There." Beast raised an eyebrow. "And that would be…?" "Something to make sure my bones don't shatter every time I hit something." Beast nodded. "Ah." With that, John wrapped his other arm up, pleased to see that he had full mobility and flexibility, and with his fingers exposed he could eat and sleep with the bands on. John smiled a bit. "Thanks, Mr. McCoy." With that he left the infirmary. As he entered the livingroom, Scott, Jean, Amara, Rogue and X-23 were grouped around the TV. He blinked, walking over. Smoke was rising from Scott's glasses. "Ahoy." They turned around and saw him. Half of them looked sympathetic. The other half grew almost angrier. Scott was one of them. "John." He said, voice carefully controlled. "Bobby… he… when we were in the mall…" John grimaced. Oh, that's what was going on. John frowned, walking up in time to catch the very end. "…and there you have it, folks. The X-Men: Public protectors? Or inexperienced youths going over their heads? And, now to Jenny with the weather." Scot was visibly shaking with rage. "That little…" His words failed him but Jean cringed away. "Jeez Scott." John shrugged. "So he's a little asanine. All it means is we don't let Bobby on a few missions for a while and be done with it." At this… unfortunately precise moment the Iceman himself walked into the room. Bobby's face turned beet red. "You son of a-" But Scott cut him off. "Bobby." His voice seethed with venom. John was suddenly very sorry for his would be tormentor. Bobby was suddenly a lot more humble then he had just been. "Y-yeah Scott?" "I'm not _quite sure _what you were trying to do by publically _humiliating _John, but now people think we're just a bunch of inexperienced kids. I'm going to _skin you alive._" There was a gruff growl as Logan and X-23 walked into the room. "Not until I'm done with him ya don't, Cycke." Logan grabbed Bobby by the collar and dragged him forcibly out of the room, ignoring Bobby's cries of protest. X-23 walked over to John and leaned her head on his shoulder without a word. "I'm so sorry, John…" John felt his heart thump dangerously in his chest. John was able to ge his mouth to work. "Not your fault." X-23 sighed. "Still need some time?" She asked him quietly. John nodded. He felt her shift a bit, uncomfortably. John frowned inwardly. He didn't know why he was having such trouble here. He was infinitely happy that she was giving him time however. He didn't need much more… She pulled away from him and walked out of the room where Logan had left. Scott sighed, looking after her, then at John. "What're you afraid of, John? Is it those claws?" Scott's feeble joke earned him a dead arm from Jean. John sighed. "It's complicated." Scott smiled a bit, putting an arm around Jean's waist. "John, she loves you." Jean smiled at him. "And you love her." John made a face. Jean continued on. "You can't waist time, or she'll slip through your fingers." She looked up at Scott. "That's a lesson I've learned the hard way." And Scott and Jean left John alone with Amara and Rogue. Amara gave him a ruefull smile. "You know they're right, bro." She gave him a quick hug. "I gotta go… I'll see you later." With that, Rogue and John were alone. She sat down in an armchair across from him. "Ah don' see what yer problem is, shuga. She loves you, you love her. Where's your hesitation?" John grimaced. "Rogue, you know how it feels to live on the street, at least for a little bit. You also know what it feels like to be betrayed, how hard it is to push past it. So let me ask you… what _is _my problem?" And with that, Rogue was left all by herself.

* * *

Kurt and Kitty were talking in his room. Nothing serious, just chit- chat. "So, like, did you hear about what Bobby did?" Kitty was fiddling absently with a strand of her hair. Kurt loved her hair. He loved everything about her. "Ja, I did. Zhe Iceman has become qvite an _arsch_, hasn't he?" Kitty sighed, laying in kurt's lap. "I dunno what his deal is." Kurt sighed. Everyone at the institute at the moment were all talking about the same team. "Bobby has finally overstepped his vas bound to happen sometime." Kurt kissed the top of her head. "Ich Liebe Dich." Kitty giggled. "Say it again." "Ich Leibe Dich." "You are so mine right now." Kitty giggled. Kurt smiled a bit. "Vhen have I ever been anyzhing else?" Kitty sighed, running her hand down his arm. "So, Like… how'd the mission go?" "I already told you." "So, tell me again." She rolled onto her stomach, still on his chest. She propped her head up on her elbows, waving her legs behind her. Kurt sighed. "Ve got in, ve kicked ze brotherhood's arsches, and Bobby screwed up any good feeling about our victory." Kitty giggled. "It sounded so much better the last time you told it." Kurt shrugged, putting his hands around her waist. "Vell, zhe last time vas just zhe fourzh. Zhis time vas zhe fifzh." Kitty giggled. "Have I ever told you that, like, your accent totally mangles the crap outta your english?" "You know you love it."

* * *

(And there you have it! Here's Chapter 13. They say 13 is an unlucky number, and for poor John boy, it is. Well, other'n that, I'll be as fast to update as I can, and stay tuned, for more Action! –_action!- _Drama! –_drama!- _and sarcasm! –_sarcasm!- _)


	14. Piercing

(A/N: Here we go, Chapter 14. One away from 15 chapters. 15. I'm either really dedicated or really without a life. Actually… it's both. And I'm ok with it. BTW, Nightcrawler's Shadow, I need a better way to communicate with you then through the Author's Notes so I'm gonna post reviews on my own story. So check the reviews every once in a while, if you please.)

John set his backpack down in his usual seat next to X-23. For the day she was on a mission with Logan tracking down a loose end about HYDRA. The teacher realized she was absent. "Does anyone know where Danielle is?" John raised his hand. "She's on a fishing trip with her father in Canada." The teacher nodded. "Thank you John." Well, that was close enough to the truth. As she proceeded with the lessons John drifted through it without really paying attention. He still had the cloth wrapped around his arms. People had been asking him about it all day, with John casually replying 'stove accident'. He was doodling with his pencil again. Now it was him in his armor form. He absently sketched the plate he had welded to his head. Currently said plate was covered by a cotton eye patch. John sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He had refused an image inducer like Kurt's. When he was done sitting through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, he sat down at their usual table and waited for the others to arrive. His head was throbbing painfully, had been all day. He saw Pietro pass the table and glared at him. He was about to continue eating when a foul stench filled the air. "Pheaugh! What smells like a dead possum in a dumpster?" Todd, The Toad, landed on the seat next to him. John made a face and leaned away from him. "Whoa whoa whoa, I just want to talk, yo." John relaced a bit. "What about?" Todd shifted uncomfortably. "I… I wanna leave the Brotherhood. They're fallin' in wit' the wrong crowd, yo. Not… like before, like the _bad _crowd." He shifted uncomfortably and his sneakers squeaked. "I… I wanna go to the institute… Colossus wants to come wit' me, yo. I… we ain't got nowhere else to go." John could hear the desperation in his voice. "An' Wanda too… We can't take it no more." At this time, the others arrived. In less than three seconds Toad was surrounded. "Aint you had enough punishment, tolanski?" Rogue cracked her knuckles. John held up his hands. "Hold on, guys. The Toad, Colossus and… whoever 'wanda' is are done clowning around with the Brotherhood." Rogue scoffed. "Yeah raht. An' ah'm Logan's daughter." John sighed exaspertedly. "Give them a chance, huh? From what you tell me Wanda's not that ba-" There was a 'bamf' and suddenly a nightcrawler was sitting across from Toad, glaring at him. "Vhat is zhe toad doing here?" John rubbed his temples. "Oh my god, I'm going to explode." He slapped his hand on the table as Scott and Jean made ready to boot him away from the table, making them jump. They had been glaring venomously at Toad, and said slimy person was currently trying to melt into the chair. "OK. Before _anyone _asks any _more _questions I've already answered, look. Toad is here because he, colossus, and Wanda are through with the brotherhood. THERE. I am _officially _done explaining it to you. All of you." Kitty came up at this point and blinked. "Like, what's the toad doing at our table?" She asked, scrunching up her nose. John slammed his head on the table. Kurt explained this to Kitty.

* * *

By the end of the day, arrangements had been made. Gambit had been at the institute Magneto had opened helping him set up. When Colossus, Wanda, and Toad showed up at the meeting place in the parking lot, Magneto was waiting for him in his civilian clothes, with Gambit by his side. Gambit walked over to the X-Men who were staying at the Xavier institute, and Colossus and Wanda and Todd walked over to Magneto, to become the first three official X-Men Division M. That day ended on a high note for everyone, it seemed. The professor was happy to find out that Magneto had his first three students, and X-23 and Logan returned from their 'fishing trip' happier than most students at the mansion had ever seen them. When they got back, Logan was actually smiling widely. X-23 was practically skipping. John was… asleep on the couch with his earphones blaring.

* * *

X-23 ran inside and went straight for John, a huge grin on her face. "John!" he jumped on him, startling him to awakenes. "Who- Ah! X-23 what happened?" He sleepily pulled his headphones out of his ears, looking sleepy but alert. X-23 grinned. "We got the last one, John. We got the last one." John blinked. "The last one of what?" "The last HYDRA facility!" John smiled tiredly. "That's awesome! So then, what, you don't have to worry about any more Weapon X-projects then?" She nodded happily. What was better was that John was actually understanding, not just saying it was great. She could feel it. John smiled. "You know I think it's wonderful. But could you let me up please? My Ipod's on low, I wanna charge it." She rolled off him, a bit embarrased. "Yeah, sorry…" They sat there awkwardly for a moment before he stood up and moved out of the room. She sighed, flipping on the TV. "… millionaire Obediah Stane and his buisness rival Tony Stark have finally…" She flipped the channel. "… With his prey in his sight, Kraven the Hunter prepares to make his move…" She flipped it again. But it broke into a special news bulletin. X-23 blinked. "Hey! Guys! Get in here!!" She shouted and yelled for the others. Eventually, John, Rogue, Kurt, and Scott got to the room. "…We bring you this special news bulletin from county squ-" The screen fizzled a bit. Then it broke into a view of a young white haired man in a tuxedo jacket and a white T-Shirt sitting at a desk. "Hi, everyone." He gave a flashy smile and waved at the camera. "My name's Donald Pierce. Oh, don't try changing the channel. It won't work. You see, I've wired every single TV station broadcast directly to this camera. Your pretty much stuck watching me." He leaned back. "I'm a member of the illustrious 'Hellfire Club.' I highly doubt any of you have heard of us." X-23 frowned. There was something odd about this guy. Donald continued to talk. "I suppose many of you are wondering why exactly I'm here. Well, I'll tell you. Three reasons." He held up three fingers. A slight whirring noise permeated the air as he did so. "One: I'm here for your money. Your bank'll be empty by tonight. Two: I'm here to spread the word of the Hellfire Club to any mutants or otherwise interested in our work. We've got room to grow." He waggled his third finger a bit. "And three: I'm here to kill the X-Men."

* * *

The mansion, more or less, went into a bit of a panic. Eventually the Professor got everyone settled down, but by that time everyone had heard, more or less, of the newscast. Kurt frowned. "Vhy target us? Ve have done nozhing to him, or zhem, or vhatever." Kurt waved a tridactyl hand. Kitty, who was holding his other hand, frowned. "I know, it's like, totally unfair, yaknow?" The professor put the tips of his fingers together. "This… Donald Peirce is no mutant. I've thoroughly checked Cereboro, and he has no mutantcy that I could tell." Kurt frowned. There had to be something to this guy they weren't getting. John was leaned against the wall, his odd iridescent eyes gleaming as he thought. "This guy is determined. But he's never been to Bayville before, obviously not, otherwise he would know that there's more than one bank. He seems pretty casual, so either he's underestimated us because all he's seen of us is the newscast…" He shot a sharp look at Bobby. "…Or he's got something up his sleeve. I for one think it's both." Kurt sighed. "But if he is who he says he is, vhy not look into us before blatiently announcing his intentions?" Kurt frowned to himself. This was quite a predicament. Scott spoke up. "Because all he's seen of us is Bobby, John, Ororo and Beast. He doesn't know that there's more than four of us." Kurt saw X-23 inch closer to John out of the corner of his eye. Scott was about to say something else when the TV, which had been on CNN as before, suddenly returned to the special report stage and Donald Pierce appeared onscreen again. In the lower right corner it said 'Doncast'. He smiled again. "Oh, one thing I've forgotten to mention. You X-men have three days to –ahem-… make your move, before I do it for you. Toodles." He blew a raspberry at the screen and it turned off. Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Not zhe most serious person ve've ever faced is he?" Scott frowned. "He's so… weird." Kurt couldn't help but think that something was off here. As the day rattled on and everyone prepared, two more newscasts came up. One declared that the hot dogs in Bayville were suckish but the pizza was great. The other declared that he would be giving the team clues as to where he would be striking on the fourth announcement. Kurt saw these. After the second panic of the day died down, Kurt figured that Donald Pierce just loved to hear himself talk.

* * *

John had decided to try playing his guitar again. This time, he played a slightly more… neutral song. He was sitting on the couch in the living room, ignoring the TV. This time he had invited the others freely to come. He was busy tuning his guitar and putting his amp in when they all arrived. John raised an eyebrow. "Did you all plan to come in at the same time, or is this one of those weird coincidences?" The X-Men looked around at each other for a moment. Scott scratched his head. "Ah… well it wasn't…. _not _planned." John shrugged. "All right. Just… gimme some space here, ok? I'm not used to this." They all sat down in any place they could find. Donald had just announced his clue, and John figured they could all use a little pick- me- up… His clue had been 'Bayville's whitest field'. Jean had figured out that he must mean the Bayville High football field. But that was moot. They had plenty of time to prepare. So, John would help in his own way. He began to strum, a simple chord pattern at first, then advanced it. It's a Mistake, bu Colin Hay. The perfect song, given the occasion. "Jump down the shelters, to get away! The boys are cockin' up their guns." John strummed the intricate pattern here. He only had one guitar so he had to compensate by playing the other parts at the same time as the lead. He had left his pick aside for this one. "Tell us general, is it party time? And if it is, can we all come…" He entered the bridge of the song, his fingers working overtime as it got more complex. "Don't think that we don't know." A complex little burst of sound. "Don't think that we're not tryin'." Another of these little bursts. "Don't think we move to slow." He did it again. "There's no use left for cryin', saying it's a mistake." Finally, the chorus. John smirked a bit to himself. "It's a mistake!" A quartet of chords marked the chorus. "It's a mista-ake." The quartet of chords rang again. "It's a mistake! Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh." The rest of the song came and went, and when he was done he bowed theatrically. The others clapped, and began to file out after congradulating him and what have you. Last of all, X-23 walked up to him. She smiled at him. He smiled back. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it John?" John shrugged. "I guess maybe you were right… a little bit." She leaned her head on his shoulder, and for once John didn't try to pull away. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and they both left the room.

* * *

(For those of you who actually know what the Hellfire Club is, I'm not going to be entirely accurate with them. So don't get pissed at me.)


	15. Circuits

-A/N: Woohoo! Chapter 15! Who'd a thunk it. And I've been checking my E-Mail, as well. Apparently more people are reading than I'd thought. For those of you reading and not reviewing, you feedback is very much wanted and appreciated. And thank you for reading!-

When they arrived at Bayville High, all was quiet. Donald had been waiting a while. So inconsiderate of them to make him wait. Although he had been standing in that exact spot since five… and hadn't told them to be there untill eight. He'd also warned any news helicopters that might think of coming away. Donald swayed a bit, hands clasped behind his back, humming a light tune. "ooh, they're here." He gave a flashy smile and began to walk towards them. He listened to his legs as he moved. _Whirr- click. Whirr- click. _He stopped in front of them. "Holy crap, you even have your own costumes? That's _sick._" He took up a fighting stance. An old dude in a wheelchair rolled forwards. "Before we fight… we'd all like to know. Why are you doing this? What reason could you possibly have?" Donald smiled to himself. He leaned against a lightpost. "Buddy, the answer is really quite simple. Because I can. And because Shaw ordered me to… oh, also because you're a threat that needs to be removed." The warm indifference that usually colored his voice turned to icy determination. With that he launched himself at the old man, and the battle began.

* * *

Donald never got to the professor. Jean caught him in midair. Donald realized what she had done and spun one way, then the other at a dizzying speed. An inhuman speed, in fact. Jeans concentration snapped, and her head rocked backwards as if she had actually been struck. Donald landed on the ground and danced towards the X-Men. John was shocked at his speed. He leapt in front of the professor as the other hurled a crushing roundhouse at him. John caught the blow on his forearm, ignoring the sharp crack it produced, grabbed his leg. His leg felt weird. Too hard for skin and bone. He ignored it, swung Donald around and slammed him into the pole he had been leaning against before. The pole dented outwards where he struck it. Then John pulled him away, and hurled him, increasing his velocity away from them. Donald flew through the air, did a trio of backflips, and landed cleanly on his feet. He smirked. "That's the very best you've got?" Scott stepped forwards. "Not even close." He fired a full-power optic blast at Daniel. The other nimbly sidestepped it, leapt away from the next, and began running full tilt at them, Scott firing optic blasts and Bobby firing ice beams. A bolt of ice clipped his shoulder, freezing his upper arm and jerking his body back a bit. Scott nailed him in the chest and he was sent skidding back. Bobby smirked. John stood in front of the professor, rubbing his arm. "Professor, you should get back in the jet." He said. The professor was concentrating, then snapped out of his reverie. "What?" John frowned. "What what?" "I can't read his mind." This shocked John a bit. "Now you _really _need to get on the jet, professor." He wheeled the professor back onto the jet without waiting for his reply. He turned around to see Donald pick himself up off the ground and brush the ice off his shoulder. Johns eyes narrowed. He ran down next to Bobby. "Allow me?" Bobby sneered at him. "Whatever, just don't do anything stupid." John ignored him and sprinted at Donald. Donald ran at him. John realized that Donald was easily as fast as him, maybe more so. And his limbs were abnormally hard. John's mind was working overtime even as he engaged Donald in combat. Donald swung a lightning fast punch at John's head, and when John ducked he brought up his knee to meet him. John barely got his hands up in time to block it. He pushed away from his knee and evaded a dizzying array of attacks. "Jesus F-!" John caught one of his fists, easing himself back to soften the blow. He pulled up on his arm, then forced his arm back. Locked into the straight position as it was, his shoulder jerked back and John took his opening. He delivered a blow to his chin that could knock out any full grown man. A dull thunk sounded. John pulled his hand back and leapt back. He shook his hand wildly. It was like punching colossus. Donald stood there for a minute, head thrown back. He looked ridiculous. Then his head snapped back up and he launched himself at John with a furious assault. John raised his eyebrows. He ducked sideways around his punch, and when Donald brought his leg up John trapped it between his ribs and his arm. He swung back, pulling Donald with him. He lifted him into the air, shifting his grip onto the back of his shirt. He kept one hand on his pant leg and slammed the other onto his knee. Another dull thunk sounded and John leapt backwards, yelping. His knee felt like someone had just hit him with a sledge hammer. John limped back to the others. "Ow… that guy's hard as a rock!"

* * *

Donald stood up, cracking his back. "Wow… you hit hard for a fleshling." He started to laugh when an optic blast nailed him right in the eye. The beam held steady, dragging over his arm, chest and stomach as he tumbled backwards, still in the path of the beam. Donald was sent tumbling back, and when he landed he stopped moving. Scott winced. "Oh god… I aimed a little high…" Then, Donald slowly got to his feet. His hand was over his eye where Scott's optic blast had hit, and his other arm hung limply at his side. It twitched, and he held it out, studying the sleeve of his jacket with his remaining arm. His face was totally emotionless now. The sleeve had been blown away on one side. A gleam of metal showed through where the hole was. He sighed. "Ah, man. That jacket was a rental." He tugged at his glove with his mouth, pulling it off. His _hand… _Kurt's mouth dropped open. His hand was completely made out of metal, like Colossus's. Only… there were tattered shreds of skin in between his fingers in some places, skin on the tips of his fingers. Kurt felt the hair on the back of his neck raise slightly as he pulled off his jacket. His arm was the same deal, as was his chest. Flawless, shining steel. He pulled his other hand away from his eye. Half the skin on his face was blown away, revealing steel. "He's…. He's…" Donald blinked. An audible click sounded. "Oh, damn. That was my only skin. I'll have to have Shaw make some more for me when I get back." His face, still neutral, turned towards them. His eye bulged out of the eye socket slightly, like on a real skull. But as he moved, the light glinted off the steel that lay under his skin. X-23 and Logan unsheathed their claws. Donald blinked again. Click. "Oooh, you must be the Weapon X- subjects. Shaw warned me about you." John was about to object to X-23's going into battle. He forgot about it though, when she growled at Donald. She and Wolverine sprinted towards Donald, claws outstretched. "You see, I myself am a cyborg, so I can sympathise with you. But god save me, it's _fun._"

* * *

X-23 swung at him, one of her claws catching his shoulder. It left a shallow cut as Donald danced away. "Ooh, your fast. Not as fast as that other dude, the guy with the grey skin, but damn fast." Logan snarled. "Do you ever shut up?" Donald cackled. "Not really." His voice sounded almost automated now. His face returned to a neutral look. He ducked under Logan's claws and punched him in the stomach. There was a sharp crack and a small wave of force pushed X-23 back. She stumbled a bit as Donald grabbed Logan's head and hurled him back to the other X-Men. He slammed into John, who yelped, staggering back. X-23 snarled. "Your gonna pay for that." Donald blinked, cocking his head to one side in a very cyborg-ish way. "Oh, am I?" He slid effortlessly away from her. They exchanged blows for at least five more minutes. This was taking its toll on X-23. She wiped a line of sweat from her forehead, panting slightly. She swung downwards at Donald and he caught her arm. She winced as he squeezed, then swung at him with her other arm. He caught that too. "I can do other stuff, too." An electrical current ran into her. She whimpered as he did He kneed her in the stomach, and she fell to her knees with a choked sound. She closed her eyes. She wrenched her arms up. "Such a pretty thing." He bent inwards with one of them. "Such a shame." With that, he picked her into the air, snapped one of her arms inwards, and drove her own claws into her stomach.

* * *

She screamed. Nothing else mattered to him in that split second but watching her scream as he snapped her arm and impaled her on hew own claws. And she screamed. John felt his heart flutter dangerously. Then, an incredible anger flowed through him, erasing the pain in his knee. His heart now thumped with fury. Kurt put a hand to his mouth. "Mein _gott…" _Kitty buried her face in his shoulder while Scott and Jean watched on grimly. John looked at Bobby. "Truce?" "Truce." "Kick his ass?" "Definitely." "Should you or should I?" Bobby smirked. "You know what? Maybe your not so bad after all." He made a sweeping motion and John cracked his knuckled. "Hey, jackass!" Donald looked up from X-23. She had curled into a ball, her broken arm limply laying on the ground and blood leaking from her chest while she struggled to heal herself. "You touch my girlfriend again and see what happens!" Bobby, bless him, made no sound. John was barely containing himself. Donald smirked. "Oh, you mean like this?" He reached down and poked her shoulder. John armored up and had crossed half the distance to Donald before his face could contort in surprise. "You son of a BITCH!" John punched him in the stomach. There was a loud crack and Donald staggered back. He looked up at the 7' robot that now fought him. He looked stunned. John didn't give him time to think. He hammered his head down, brought his other fist up and Donald was airborne. John grabbed his leg, spun and slammed him hard into the ground, which shuddered a bit. John snarled, grabbing his head and lifting him into the air. He hurled him into the air and leapt after him, moving almost to fast to see. He grabbed him in mid air and punched him, spinning him upside down. John grabbed his leg by the shin again and swung him into the ground for the second time as he landed. This time it was a tremor as he hit the ground. John hurled him into the air. "Bobby!" The others snapped out of their stupor as Bobby fired a freezing beam at Donald. The cyborg's chest had a dent, and his shoulderplate had been torn off, exposing the machinery beneath. His left eye, the one exposed from under the skin, was barely still in the socket. His face, still emotionless, looked down at Bobby. He brought his arms up in an X and caught the freeze beam on them as he fell. His arms acquired a fine layer of frost. As he landed, he shook them a bit. His shirt was torn, his right arm twitched and sparked. More than half of the skin covering his face was gone, exposing half of the metal jaw. Donald spoke, but his jaws didn't move. "Your getting quite an*Bzzt*n-noying." He began to walk towards them. Now he was more like the cliché terminator, moving slowly, face emotionless. John watched him from X-23's side. He knelt down next to her, armoring down, putting one arm under her head to support her, and put his other hand on top of hers, put over her wound on her stomach. She looked up at him blearily. "John?" She asked quietly. John's heart throbbed. He hated seeing her like this. "Yeah, it's me." She shuddered a bit. "That son of a bitch stabbed me w-with my own claws." John brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "We'll get him, X." She leaned into his chest. John kissed her forehead lightly. "It'll be ok." She closed her eyes for a moment. John looked up as a metal scream resounded across the field.

* * *

It had screamed into Kurt's face, disorienting him. Rubbing his ears, Kurt kicked the metal man back. He 'ported him four times in rapid succession. The metal man hurled him aside. "Pitiful." Kitty jumped forward to try and phase through him, and he electrocuted her. She yelped and staggered off to one side. Kurt 'ported to her. He grabbed her. "Keety, are you ok?" She shook her head to clear it. "I'm fine, Kurt… can you get me close enough to stop it?" Kurt thought for a moment. He certainly could, but his reflexes paled in comparison to the robots, and he would just electrocute Kitty again. "Vhe need a distraction." He said. Scott rolled to his feet next to him. The rest of the X-Men had scattered. Rogue was flying over Donalds head, Bobby's version of her outfit catching his eye, as he remembered, out of place, her reaction to it. ("Oh my gawd, bobby!" "Ha, ha. That'll teach you not to mess with me." "I love it!" "You _WHAT?"_) She kicked the metal man in the back, and he rocketed towards Jean, who caught him. He was hurled into the air by an unseen force. Bobby caught him with an ice beam, frosting over his right shoulder. Scott smirked. "A distraction, right Kurt? Well here ya go!" He pulled off his Visor, and opened his eyes fully upwards at the metal man. The full force of Scott's optical powers, a wide beam that stretched into the sky, slammed into Donald. He'd only done this once before, on Juggernaut. Donald wasn't able to get his arms up in time. His shirt was torn to tatters, the fake skin shredding away from him and disintegrating behind him. His face, still half on, was contorted in a snarl as he forced one arm in front of his face. Scott's beam petered out, and he dropped to one knee, panting. Kurt put a hand on his shoulder. "You ok, Scott?" Scott nodded. "Just… worn out…" Donald stood up and emitted a shrill, mechanical laugh. "That's it…? Huh? That's all you've got for me? You're all NOTHING!" He laughed exhilaratedly, smoke still curling off the half-melted plates that covered his chest and shoulders. Kurt looked at Kitty. Kitty kissed his cheek. "Do it." He ported her to her. Donalds laughter stopped abruptly. He tried to put his hands up in time, but Kitty phased her hand through his forehead. Donald screamed again, a shrill, metallic sound, and his head jerked back. Kitty yanked her hand away and kurt teleported them back to where they were. Donald's scream petered out, and he offlined, stuck in the pose he'd taken last, arms thrown out to his sides, head thrown back, jaw open wide as he shouted his agony. Kitty took a step forwards, but Kurt's sharp ears caught a click. He grabbed Kitty and 'ported them next to Scott. And Donald exploded with the force of a small missile, carving a large crater in the ground. Even from the distance he was at Kurt and Kitty were sent sailing back along with the rest of the X-Men by the shockwave. Kurt looked up to see the others picking themselves off the ground. John walked towards them, X-23 asleep with her arms around his neck and her head buried in his chest. She had one arm under her head and the other under her knees. He smiled wearily at the others. "So much for that putz."

* * *

-Chapter fifteen is a shocker, huh? And a real long one at that. The second longest I've written, I believe. Well, after this I've got a few more before I start my next story, X-Men: Evolution, Hellfire. Keep your eye out for it! Also, if it says 'Daniel' instead of 'Donald', ignore it. I meant to write Donald. -


	16. Reunion

(A/N: Chapter 16 is a-comin' your way! Only four more chapters after this. Then I'll be on to my next story, X-Men: Evolution, Hellfire. Essentially a sequel to this one, so keep your eyes peeled for it. Enjoy!)

There was a whirr of machinery as James Sinclair awoke. He looked around hazily. He wasn't strapped down as he had been before. "Wh… where am I?" A voice sounded nearby. It sounded cold and mettalic, but upbeat and carefree. "Oei, Shaw. He's awake, dude. C'mere!" A sound of footsteps echoed down the corridor. "IS he now? Well, let us see him." They stepped into the room. James snarled. "YOU!" He pointed at the white haired young man absently scratching his arm. "Yeah, ME!" He stuck his tongue out at James. James snarled. "I should rip you apa-" A second person stepped into the room. He was easily twenty, with raven black hair tied back in a samurai tie. He smiled warmly, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Hello, James. My name is Shaw. I am the Black King of the Hellfire Club. I've made you into a weapon of incredible power. James grimaced. "So you've turned me into a mutant?" "Yes. You catch on fast for a guy who's been in a coma for five weeks." "Hush, Donald." Donald grimaced. Shaw ran a hand down the mutton chops on the sides of his face. "I'm inviting you to join us as the White Rook. You will be a symbol of power and fear. Commoners will fear you, other mutants will fall before you." James snarled, standing and walking towards Shaw. "How DARE you-" Suddenly Donald slammed his head into the wall. A knife slid out of his wrist. "Careful." He shoved away from him and walked to stand back next to Shaw. Shaw sighed. "The way I see it you've got two choices. Go out in the street, or stay here, where I can give you anything you want." James grimaced. He might as well get used to his position. "The white… rook you said?" Shaw smiled a bit. "Now your thinking. Welcome to the Hellfire Club. Your new name will be Trevor Fitzroy." Trevor Fitzroy, formerly James Sinclair, bowed in front of Shaw. "How can I be of assistance?"

* * *

X-23 jumped on Johns back while he was looking out the window of the kitchen, leaned against the counter. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, giggling a bit. "Guess who?" John jerked forwards, a bit surprised, but raised an eyebrow, turning his head to the side and looking at her with his iridescent eyes. "Who else could it be?" He said, a smile curling his lips. She loved to see that smile. X-23 let go of him so he could turn, then kissed him lightly on the lips. "Having a good Saturday, John?" He put his arms around her waist. "I am now, why?" She giggled. "No reason." She put her head on his chest. "Feeling better, X?" She nodded a bit. "Yeah. I think I'm finally all healed up." "That's good, right?" She smiled again. "Mm hmm." She stepped back and looked at him. "Oh, anyways, the reason I'm here is that Scott, Jean, Kurt and Kitty are going out to dinner and they were wondering if we'd like to join them." John blinked. "Like a triple-date?" X-23 blushed a bit. "Yeah, I guess you could put it that way." John smiled. She loved his smiles. They always reached his eyes, and it made them glitter like the inside of an abalone shell. "Well, what have we got to lose then? Oh, almost forgot…" He held up a finger and raced out of the room. When he returned he had Rogue and Gambit by the sleeves. "What in gawds name are you playin' at, Shellhead?!" Rogue and Gambit both were dressed up for a night out. X-23 smiled, crossing her arms and sticking her hip out to one side. John turned to them. "Well, the rest of us are going out on a triple date and we were wondering if you might like to come." Gambit raised an eyebrow and gave John his smug cocky half-smile. "Well, I know I'd love to come 'long, but think ze car would be a bit small, non?" Rogue sighed, blowing a lock of her hair out of her face. "We can always take the X-Van, Remy. You know that." Gambit blinked. "Hey, you know that I'm new here, _cherrie, _I don't know ze perks of zis place half 's well 's you do." Rogue shrugged. "Fahn, we'll come." John coughed. "Awesome. We'll go tell Jean and Scott." John offered his arm out to X-23. Smiling, she took it. And with that, they exited the room.

* * *

As it turned out, Scott and Jean had been planning to take Kurt and Kitty alone, but when Kitty told X-23 she of course wanted to go with John, and then they told Rogue and Gambit, who had been planning to had a night out anyways. And so, with the X-Van at maximum capacity they headed off. Kurt and Kitty were seated in the very back. Kurt could see John and X-23 in the second row, barely, over Gambit and Rogues heads. "Hey, Keety?" She stirred from her sleep against his side. "Hnn?" "Vhere do you zhink ve are going?" Kitty yawned. Car rides always made her sleepy, Kurt knew. "Like, I suppose some fancy diner on the far edge of town." Kurt chuckled a bit. "Keety, you don't honestly zhink Scott unt Jean are _zhat _high strung, are you?" "I do." Vhell then I'll make you a deal. If vhe end up somevhere fancy, I vill take you shopping. But if ve end up somvhere like say… Chilis, you owe me lunch for zhree days." Kitty frowned. "That's like… totally unfair! You eat tons!" "And you literally 'shop till you drop'… I've been vizh you shopping… it's not pleasant." Kitty giggled a bit. "All right, fair enough. Deal." At this moment, they pulled up in front of a Chilis. Kurt flashed Kitty an amused smile. "Vondebar. Just vhat I vas vanting." He said so the entire car could hear him. As they filed into the chilis, and were seated, they took up the obvious positions. Scott was sitting next to Jean, who was sitting next to X-23 who as seated next to John, seated next to Gambit who was next to Rogue, who was seated beside Kurt, who was next to Kitty who was seated next to Scott. John sighed. "I haven't been here in years. Hey, can we get the chips and queso?" Rogue raised an eyebrow. "Chips an' what?" Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Ja, vhat is 'Kayso'?" John, Kitty, Scott, and Jean looked at Rogue, X-23, Gambit and Kurt like they were crazy. John cleared his throat. "Chips and queso it is!" Kurt frowned, still not understanding what it was.

* * *

As it turned out he really liked Chips and Queso. He ordered them as his main course, and they were gone within five minutes. John ended up having a skillet, which he and X-23 shared for the most part. When everyone was done eating, they split into two groups. One group, who were driving right back to the mansion, and one group who were walking. John, X-23, and Kitty and Kurt were walking, Scott, Jean, Rogue and Gambit were driving. Kitty didn't mind. There was nobody out by this time, the only light being from the streetlamps overhead. So Kurt was able to take off his image inducer. And whenever he passed into a shadow, he practically disappeared. John was surprised by this more than anyone else ("Dude, that's sick!"). Kitty kept a firm grip on his arm when they passed through shadows. Kitty had noticed that his fur had been growing darker lately. This was probably an extension of his mutation. Kitty smiled to herself, leaning her head on his arm and closing her eyes. Kurt intertwined his fingers with hers. Kitty noticed how plush his fur felt just then. Before she was able to comment Kurt hissed, keyeing his image inducer. Kitty looked ahead to see a group of very thuggish looking men with pipes and chains, looking ominously at them. John and X-23 were next to them now. The first man had a huge handlebar mustache and a pair of aviators. The second had a star spangled banner bandanna and a leather jacket to match with his white shirt and jeans, and wingtip shoes, which all the others had as well. Kurt had a haunted look in his eyes. Mustache sneered. "Hey, kiddies. Bit late to be out at night, isnt it?" X-23 put a hand on Kurt and Kitty's shoulder. "John's already on it guys." Kitty risked a quick look around for him, and realized he was nowhere to be found. Mustache saw this, however. "No help's comin', girlie." He rose the pipe menacingly. There was a strangled noise from behind him, and Mustache turned to see John, fully armored up, dropping the last of his men. John cracked his knuckles, which produced a very nice sound. "I suggest you leave." He rumbled. Mustache backed away, turned, and ran, dropping his pipe. John walked back to the others, laughing. "So much for those creeps." A red hot spike impaled in the ground in front of him. "Whoa!" John leapt back. A familiar, bone covered shape leapt out of the dark, a spike extending from his wrist. "You picked the wrong mutants to mess with, Sentinel!" John held up his arms. "Wait! I'm not a-" He ducked under a spike, rolled around a spray of smaller spikes. "Hold on!" John caught a spike, then used his enhanced reflexes to get in close to the figure. "Stop it!" John de- armored. "Look! I'm a mutant like them." He patted his chest. X-23 pushed past the armored figure to stand next to John. Kurt put a hand on his shoulder. "Relax, Evan. Zhey're kosher." Evan relaxed. "Oh, why didn't you tell me before, man?" Kitty sighed, phasing through Evan to stand next to Kurt, wrapping her hand around his. "So, Evan, this is John and X-23. They're more um… new to the institute, yaknow?" Evan blinked, holding out a hand. "Sorry about the um… misunderstanding. Nice to meet you, man." John shook his hand. X-23 wrapped her arms around John's free arm, leaning her head absently on his shoulder. John shrugged. "No problem, mate." He smiled a bit. Kitty figured they were gonna get along just fine. Evan looked at her and Kurt as he kissed the top of her head. Evan smirked. "Bout time, man." Kitty blushed a bit. John chuckled. Kurt glared. "So evan, mein freund, vould you come back to zhe institute and say hello to your aunt? She misses you." Evan frowned, conflicted. John looked at Kitty questioningly. "Storm is Evan's aunt." John blinked. "Ah. Well I say he should come by, say 'hi' to everyone." Evan blinked. "Yeah… arright, I'll come." And with a tremendous effort he withdrew his armor. Evan shuddered a bit. "Let's go, man."

* * *

(Ch. 16 is done with. Next is 17. Shocking, right? Toodles!)


	17. Revelations

(A/N: All that fluff caused my mind to explode. So I've been having a bit of a brain fart. I'm ok with fluff, don't get me wrong, but being a guy if there's not enough testosterone in something it makes my brain shut off… guys lose to girls in that respect.)

Evan saw Storm. Storm saw Evan. "Aunty O!" Evan ran and embraced his aunt, lifting her up off the ground. She laughed. "Ok, ok, Evan, you may put me down!" Evan blushed a bit. "Sorry, Aunty." He set her down and stepped back. "It's just good to see you." Ororo blinked. "My, you've gotted big." Evan grinned a bit. "Yeah, well my powers really manifested." Ororo nodded. "I can see that." Over the next hour or so everyone had a party of sorts. Evan was welcomed back with open arms, Kurt saw thankfully. Kurt and Kitty were inseparable the entire time. Kurt forgot most of the party later. Scott and Jean went to sleep early. After the party died down things found Kurt sitting in his bed with Kitty fast asleep in his lap, head pressed against his chest lightly. Kurt was dangerously close to drifting off to sleep himself. Nuzzling against Kitty's head, Kurt drifted off to sleep, unaware that things would not be as they should be the next day.

* * *

John woke up with a groan. He tried to rub his head and realized that he couldn't move his hands. "What the?" He struggled around, trying to get his bearing and realized that there was somebody next to him, Rolling over, he saw X-23. She was tied up like him, a gag tied around her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. Anger flared in his chest, and he struggled against his restraints. "Stupid…" He gritted his teeth and pulled at the ropes tied around his wrists. He heard a slight moan from behind him, rolling over to see X-23 waking up slowly. "X!" Her eyes opened and focused on him for a moment, then she began struggling against her restraints. John cougheda bit. "Wait, X, calm down. Unsheathe your foot claws." She seemed to realize what he was driving at. Nodding, she unsheathed her foot claws and wiggling her foot. As they were side by side, she was able to free his legs. John nodded and scooted back, but as her claws sliced through his rope, one of them caught in his arm, digging deep into his arm. John gritted his teeth and ignored the pain. He pulled his arms free, looking at his arm. "Ow… shit…" He ignored it, reaching over and untying her hands and feet, pulling her gag off. X-23 frowned. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, John!" She sheathed her claws and reached out to touch his arm. John ignored the pain that lanced through his shoulder when she did. "It's fine." He tore a strip of cloth from his sleeve and tied it around his arm, wincing as the rough cloth slid over his wound. X-23 frowned to herself. John saw this, putting a hand delicately to her cheek. "Don't worry about it, X." He smiled. She smiled back. "So, any idea where we are?" John shook his head. X-23 sighed. John stood, stretching. "Ugh… my head's all… foggy." He stooped, helping her shakily to her feet. His mouth had a foul taste. "Hmm… we musta been drugged…" X-23 shook her head as if to clear it, swaying. She started to fall. John caught her lightly. "Who there, princess." He pulled her onto his back, wrapping his arms under her knees. She clasped her hands around his neck, leaning her head on his back and closed her eyes. "Let's get outta here." John cautiously opened the door, looking around outside. He gasped. In front of them was a small platform, and then around them was a long shaft. John raised his eyebrow. "Damn." He turned to X-23, but she was barely awake. "Hff." He made sure she was handing on tight, then began climbing. X-23 opened her eyes a bit. He felt her heart start thumping. "Oh my god.. John, oh my god!" John winced. "X, you gotta relax. Ya gotta relax, I'm not gonna drop you. Just, don't let go." John wished he could have someone give him the same advice. So he climbed onwards. Once or twice he slipped. But he didn't fall. And when he finally reached an alcove where he could relax, he set X down, sliding against the wall, panting. X-23 woke up, rolling over. "Are we at the top yet?" She asked, sitting up, rubbing her head. She sounded better. She looked at him and frowned. "How long were you climbing?" John shook his head. "I dunno… a couple hours?" He said weakly. X-23 frowned. She crawled over to him, ducking to avoid hitting her head. She curled up next to him, resting her head on his chest. His eyesight flashed dangerously. X-23 put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry John… this place… it's gotta be HYDRA… this place reeks of them." John shivered. "I thought you said they were gone?" X-23 buried her face in his chest. "I… we must have been wrong." John's eyesight flickered again. "Hff…" X-23 looked up at him. "Get some sleep. Hopefully we'll be able to get moving again before they can find us." John closed his eyes, putting his chin on the top of her head. "I'm sorry, X…" She shook her head. "It's not your fault, John. Sleep well. I love you." With that, John passed out, exhausted.

* * *

When the mansion realized that X-23 and John were missing it went into a panic. Eventually it was Logan who got everyone to calm down ("All right, everybody SHUDDUP!"). Kurt sat with Kitty as Logan walked around, trying to catch a scent. He stopped, picking up a vial of what looked like nail polish. He took one whiff, and blinked a bit. "Drugs." He snarled. "Hydra…" Kurt frowned. "Vhen vould Hydra have possibly gotten into zhe mansion!? And I zhought zhey vere done with?" Logan snarled. "Obviously not…" They could all see the rage building inside him. Scott frowned. "Logan, if you have their scent can't you track them?" Logan growled. "Not if they took off in some sort of airship I can't, moron." Scott blushed a bit. Logan frowned. "Wait…" He sniffed the air a bit. Then he growled, low in his throat. "Mystique…" Scott swore loudly. Kurt frowned. Why would his mother be allied with HYDRA? And he knew why they might want X-23, but why John? Kurt stood. "Vell zhen ve should be going to zhe brozherhood! Ve'll force zhem to tell us, or else." He cracked his knuckles. Logan snarled. "Oh we're gonna force them to tell us. And we're gonna kick their asses as a consolation prize." He stormed past Kurt and out the door. He was oozing fury. Kurt, Kitty, Scott, Rogue, Jean and Gambit followed him. Kurt frowned. Something wasn't right here. But as they all ran for the X-Jet, he put it behind him. There would be time for questions later, for now they needed answers. As the X-Jet took off and beelined for the brotherhood's dump of a hideout, Kitty turned her glittering blue eyes on him. "Kurt, what if we can't find them in time?" Kurt had been wondering the exact same thing, but all he said was this, more to allay his own fears then hers. "Please, katzchen, you know herr Logan better then that." Evan had decided to tag along for this. He was seated across the aisle from Kurt. Evan flashed Kurt a thumbs up, and Kurt returned his thumbs up with one hand, as the other was wrapped firmly around Kitty. Kurt's tail twitched agitatedly as they touched down. The brotherhood were going to answer their questions. All of them.

* * *

When John woke, it was not to blaring sirens, as he had thought he might. He still awoke with a start, feeling around in the dark for X-23, no longer at his side. "X?" He felt a tap on his shoulder. "I'm here." John looked up at the approximate place she was standing. "How long was I asleep?" He whispered. He felt her shrug. "John, I have to ask. Do you have a plan?" John sighed. "Not even a little bit, other than 'get the hell out of here as fast as we can'. Why, do you?" Silence. "X?" "I might have a plan." She whispered. She opened a door labeled 'MAINTENANCE' John hadn't seen on the wall before. John shielded his eyes from the sudden and unwelcome admittance of light. He pulled himself to his feet, wincing as his arm flared in protest. He looked down at the blood soaked rag. "I might have to get a new bandage." John said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He wasn't feeling well, and as he looked he saw that X-23's jacket had been removed. He looked around for it and realized it had been covering the floor, and that there was a crapload of blood covering it. John frowned. That was why she had moved. He moved towards it a little to fast, and a wave of nausea washed over him. He staggered, and X-23 caught his arm. "Careful, John." "Thanks." He stooped, took the jacket, and tossed it down the elevator shaft. X-23 motioned for him to follow as she left the maintenance room. John, fighting off another wave of nausea, followed her. She made her way through the corridors as if she knew her way around. Every once in a while they had to duck out of view in a side room or behind a couple hasmat bins to avoid being seen. Eventually they found what X-23 had apparently been looking for. An office labeled 'Dr. Kinnely'. John, through his haze, recalled that Dr. Kinnely had been like X-23s mother while she was under HYDRA's control. She tried to open the door, with no luck. "It's locked." She whispered, sounding frustrated. John rubbed his head. "I… I got it." He looked around for a moment, then looked at X-23. "You wouldn't happen to have a… hairclip or somethin'?" To his surprise she produced a paperclip. "Will this work?" She asked with a small smirk. John took it, shaking his head slowly. "Yeah, yeah." He straightened it perfectly, then began picking at the lock delicately. "C'mon, c'mon…" After a couple of minutes they heard voices and footsteps approaching them from both directions along the corridor, fast approaching the turn that would bring them into view. X-23 hissed. "Come on, John!" The lock clicked. "Got it!" They hurriedly escaped into the room, probably just in time, too. X-23 frowned at him slightly as he slumped against a chair. She went into a cabinet, nodding grimly as she found bandages. "Right where I knew they'd be. This isn't a new HYDRA base. This is the old one." She snarled. John's vision was blurry, but he ignored it as she taped the bandage to his arm, tossing the bloody rag into a hazmat bin. "I didn't know you could pick locks, John. Is there anything you can't do?" She asked jokingly. John snorted amusedly. "I can't see straight right now, but if you could kindly get whatever the hell you've come here for so we can get out of here I'd be infinitely happy." X-23 stuck her tongue out at him and went rifling through the stuff in the office, coming up with a laptop, a box of kleenex, a file of top secret blueprints for an older base (The blueprints were all stamped 'outdated'), and finally, she gasped. John looked towards her. "What?" She held up a small CD-ROM data disk that looked none too new. "This… my mom said if I ever found her office to look for this." John knew that her 'mom' was Dr. Kinnely. John indicated the laptop. "Might as well see what's on it." X-23 nodded, popping the disk into the laptop. The doctor appeared on the screen. "My dear X-23… If you are watching this, then we've been separated, and HYDRA has probably killed me for my insubordination. X-23… all these years, all you've wanted is a family… a name, a normal life. But HYDRA denied you all of it." X-23 leaned against John. He put his good arm around her shoulders lightly. The recording went on. "If… If you are watching this I've got good news for you. I'd always wanted to name you, X-23… always. They never let me. So now, I'm going to give you a name. I'm naming you… Laura, after my mother. Now then, Laura… This base, if it still exists, must be destroyed. Five floors down is the main reactor, in the middle of the base. If you can rig one of your explosives to it, it should go off. In the hangar there are fighter jets that you can fly out of here. Good luck, my sweet Laura…" And the video recording cut out. X-23… Laura wiped her eyes a bit, stepping away from John. "I have a name." She said softly. John put a hand on her shoulder. "Yes. And now we know how to put this place under for good." Laura gave him a fiery look that John knew meant she was ready to see this. "All right, John. Let's go."

* * *

Pietro slammed through the last door that was still standing in the entire house, Lance soon following through the wall. "Where… the HELL… did they TAKE HER?" Wolverine had nearly decapitated Lance already once, and with the Brotherhood now only a four-person operation they were no match for the full strength of the X-Men. Gambit had Pyro, minus his flamethrowers, pinned to the wall, pressing his bo staff to his throat and pressing him against the wall. He was casually examining the nails of his other hand while he did this. The others were waiting for Wolverine to re-emerge from the cellar. Pietro came flying out with a terrified scream, slamming into the doorframe and doing a complete vertical one- eighty before landing on his face. He groaned. "Mnh…" Then Logan's hand appeared, grabbing his foot and pulling him back in. "No… wait nowaitcomeonNOOOO!" Lance came flying out as well, straight towards Kitty. She made an 'eep' noise, and Kurt was about to teleport her, when she grabbed Lance and phased him halfway through the wall. The dazed mutant looked at her. "Aww, why ya gotta be like that, Pretty Kitty?" Kurt could only see him from the waist down, but he heard the smack from the other side of the wall and heard Lance groan. Kurt kicked him in between the legs for good measure. All noises from Lance ceased. Scott looked at Kurt, one eyebrow raised. Kurt shrugged. "Vhas?" Logan came stomping up the stairs a moment later, Pietro hanging dazedly from his hand. Scott sighed. "Did you get anything?" Logan merely nodded, dropping the speedster against the wall. "Let's go." They all left the Brotherhood, and Pietro had nightmares about it for a year to come.

* * *

John staggered, sliding against the wall. Laura frowned, walking back to him. "John, are you ok?" Her boyfriend shrugged off her touch, pushing himself straight again. "'m fine. Let's just find the reactor n' get outta here, huh?" She frowned. She knew that John was pushing himself. She just didn't know how to get him to stop. He had turned a paler shade of grey, and he was sweating. X-23… no wait, Laura took his hand. "John, your running yourself ragged. Please… At least let me help you." John looked at her, then nodded slightly. Laura took one of his arms ald slung it over her shoulder, putting her arm around his back to help support him. "We're almost there, John… just one more floor to go." John sighed. "Yeah, I know. By the way, you don't have any of those explosive devices, do you?" Laura had hoped this subject wouldn't come up. "N-no… not on me." John sighed. "Hadn't thought so." Laura knew what he was thinking. "No. Oh, no. Don't even think about it. We are _both _getting out of this shithole alive, got it?" John mumbled something, but Laura sighed exasperatedly. "Even when you know I'm right you still argue. Unbeleivable." She looked up at him. He smiled weakly at her. "Just don't die of blood loss, ok?" John shrugged. "Whatever." Laura prodded his side. John squirmed. "Oi!" Laura giggled a bit. "See?" John huffed. "Whatever." When they finally did reach the reactor room they both realized something. John got it into words better than she could have. "Holy… _shit! _It's _huge!_" Laura merely nodded. "How are we supposed to blow this thing up…?" John blinked. "I… dunno." Laura frowned, looking around the room. John blinked. "Hey, shouldn't we be able to redline this thing? That'd make it explode." Laura sighed. "How? We don't know the codes…" John and Laura thought the same thing. They might not, but maybe… Laura closed her eyes thinking hard. "Yes! I remember! The last day I saw her, Mom said… something like… FUBAR, I think." John sprinted to the computer and keyed it in. The reactor hummed, and an alarm flashed. A '15 minutes to detonation' light went off on the computer screen. John smirked. "Let's get the hell out of here."

* * *

(Ooooh, exciting! Well folks, this whole mess is going to be done with in three chapters. Again, be sure to look for X-Men: Evolution, Hellfire, the sequel to this story. See ya next chapter. Toodles!)


	18. Downtime

(A/N: Two more chapters… -sniff- … I'm so choked up… Well, there's always the sequel. Hellfire, keep your eye out for it. Sorry for the wait!)

John slid against the wall for support again. His arm throbbed painfully. Laura was worried about him. "John, are you ok?" She said, delicately putting a hand on his arm. She peeled back the third bandage since she had wounded him. His wound looked bad… a twinge of guilt washed over her. She was the reason he was all messed up. John kissed the top of her head, as if he knew what she was thinking. "It's not your fault." He said quietly. Laura sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder. "It feels like it is. Come on, we don't have a whole lot more time." She helped support him. They eventually reached the hangar and found the fighter jets, right where the doctor had said. "Come on." John hopped into the cockpit and Laura slid into the back part of the cockpit. She frowned. "Do you have _any _idea how to fly this?" John grinned. "One way to find out." The bandages were obviously helping him. He turned on the jet, and Laura saw soldiers firing at them, shouting. "Now would be a really good time to leave!" John gritted his teeth and gunned the engines. Laura was thrown against her seat from the sudden acceleration. "Holy-!" John barely avoided running three people over and they shot out of the hangar into the sky. John tested all the controlls, then came to the last one. He flicked it experimentally. Nothing happened. "Huh. Guess that doesn't do anything." Laura watched the radar intently, crying out "John, behind us!" As four blips appeared with a FOF tag of 'friendly', so of course that meant 'foe' for them. John jerked back on the controlls and the jet began an accent to vertical. John growled. "We're not moving fast enough!" Laura pointed at the switch that apparently did nothing. "That's Assistance. Turn it off, so we can actually stand a fighting chance!" John nodded and flicked off the Assistance. The jet's radar screens drew back, and Laura felt a streak of fear race through her before a more detailed radar screen dropped down. Laura blinked. "John, can you handle this?" John cleared his throat. "Shouldn't be much harder than the flight sim at Chuck- E- Cheeses…" Laura coughed. "That was a joke… right?" John chuckled. "No." He pulled up, and this time the response was immediate. The plane's nose shot up and back, swinging hard. John yelped, and Laura's head slammed into her seat. "Yeow!" She winced, gripping the seat. The plane began to spin back, and John pulled up, swinging them upright. Laura turned and realized they were a long way away from the base. Even from their distance, the explosion sent up a huge column of smoke, the shockwave sending their plane spinning, uncontrollably. John screamed. "Oh God!!" Laura yanked on the eject button of the cockpit and they were launched from the cockpit with an explosive decompression. Laura's stomach lurched. They were faced down, not up. Laura curled into a ball and felt something cold and hard wrap around her. She opened her eyes to see John in his armored form. "You might wanna close your eyes, Laur. This might hurt." Laura's eyes widened as she realized what he was intending to do. Before she could do anything his back his the first branch and her head bounced off his chest and everything went dark.

* * *

John awoke some time later, flat on his back amid a crater and an array of broken branches. Sunlight filtered through the hole in the canopy over him he must have torn when he fell. He really didn't want to move. He really, really, _really_ didn't. But Laura was out cold, three feet away. His heart wrenched and he forced himself to move. He groaned. He was sore, but nothing felt broken. He stretched. His armor must've held up better than he thought. He crawled over to Laura. "Laur? You ok?" He whispered, shaking her shoulder lightly. She groaned, rolling over. John smirked. "Laura, wake up! Come on, we can't stay here for long." Laura groaned and opened her eyes, looking at him. "Ugh… we make it?" John smiled a bit. "You tell me." She sat up, and John noticed, with releif, that she seemed fine as well. A fighter flashed overhead. "Jesus!" He tackled her out of sight just in time and found himself on top of her, looking down at her face. "Oh… hi." Laura blushed a bit, blinking. "H…hi…" John looked down at her. She looked up at him. After a couple of seconds they got themselves working again, and John rolled to his feet. "Right… well. Let's get out of here, huh?" Laura climbed to her feet, nodding. "Yeah." From that point onwards, John was stumbling behind Laura as she raced through the forest. "Jeez." He leapt over a fallen branch, ducked around a tree, and caught up to Laura as they ran across a clearing. "How can you move so fast?" Laura smirked a bit. "Years of practice." John sighed. "Well it's not fair." Laura giggled. "Hey, you know your way around the urban jungle, I know my way around the natural one." John sighed. She was right, of course. Then a hail of bullets ripped out of the forest from behind them. John yelped and tackled Laura behind a log. His arm was throbbing again, the bandage torn off. A bullet zinged over his head, barely missing them. Laura was about to get back up, eyes flashing. John pulled her back down, putting a finger to his lips. She curled her lip, but stayed silent. There were muffled voices. John held up three fingers. The voices grew nearer. "…we get 'em? I don't see any movement." John put down a finger. "No, that X-23's tricky. At least she's alive, if not that then that other freak she was using will be dead." John put down another finger. "You think she actually liked that kid?" "Naww, she's got no friends." An outburst of raucous laughter. They were practically on top of them. John nodded, putting his last finger down. Laura burst from cover with an angry snarl, claws unsheathing with a light 'snikt.' John leapt over the log and immediately dropped three soldiers, flipping one of their guns into his hand. He blocked anothers shot, and a robot arm came flying by, and twitched in the grass next to him. "They're robots?" he mumbled to himself. A bullet zinged over his head, and he rolled out of the way. Laura called over to him. "Don't just stand there! Shoot something!" She ducked sideways out of sight. John frowned, spinning behind a tree. "I've never fired a gun before!" "Well, everybody's gotta learn sometime!" John smirked. He turned and began firing wildly, yelling crazily. The robot soldiers screamed and tried to run but somehow, a bullet found each of them. John didn't stop firing for a few seconds after the last soldier had fallen, still spraying the robots with bullets. He stopped yelling and stopped firing, panting a bit. Laura giggled, patting his shoulder. "Way to go, Rambo." John made a face. "Yeah, let's just get out of here." He threw the gun behind him and ran off after her into the jungle.

* * *

The X-Jet soared over the crater of slagged metal where the HYDRA fortress had obviously been. Kurt felt a swell of pride. "Vhell ve'd better make sure zhat zhey stay happy, ozhervhise zhey may blow up zhe mansion." Kitty giggled. Evan blinked, raising his eyebrows. "What did I miss while I was away, man? The Juggernaut join ya or something?" Beast chuckled. "Unfortunately, both John and X-23 are very good at blowing things up." Everyone except for Logan laughed at that. Logan was concentrating on the ground radar, and Kurt realized that wherever they were they might be hurt, if not from the explosion then from however they had escaped it. They passed over a crashed jet and a crater in the canopy that looked fairly John sized. They sped onwards, untill they saw them, running from a wave of enemies, across a plain, barely outpacing their opponents. Logan snarled. "We've got to get down there! X-Men, prepare for a quick liftoff!" Scott adjusted his vizor, Jean nodded back at the others. Kurt gripped his seat tightly. "Here ve go, Katzchen…" Kitty nodded, gripping his hand. The plane swung 360 degrees around, faced the other way. Kurt's stomach was suddenly in his throat. "Ugh…" Kitty made a face. The plane stopped in front of John and X-23, and the ramp rolled down to meet them. Kurt 'bamfed' to them. "Come on, come on, let's go!" He waved his tridactyl hands wildly at them. "Hurry!" They got to him and he bamfed them into the jet. Kurt turned to logan. "Gehen Sie! Gehen! Gehen!" Logan must've felt his urgency even if he didn't understand what he was saying. He revved up the engines and they shot off at top speed. Within seconds everyone was all over them. Kurt and Evan got to them first, unfortunately for them. "Vhat happened?"

"Who were they?"

"Vhere did zhey take you?"

"Didja blow 'em up?"

"Vhere they HYDRA?"

Luckily for them, John fainted from blood loss, and X-23 had an excuse to abscond to the back of the jet. Kurt sighed. The thing was, they really did look ragged, tired… like they hadn't slept in days. But the truth was it had only been two. So something must've been wrong. Kurt frowned, sitting back next to Kitty. Evan yawned a bit. Kurt looked at him. "You're going to stay vhizh us for a vhile zis time, right Evan?" Evan looked at him. "… Yeah, I guess I can stay a while, man." He moved around disconcertedly in his seat. Kurt looked up as they zoomed over a building. They were getting close to home. "Herr Logan?" Logan grunted. "Canada." He didn't say a word until they were back home. As he gave the professor his report, Beast rushed John to the infirmary. X-23 sighed, leaning tiredly against the wall. Kurt padded over to her on all fours. "You are vorried about him, ja?" She looked at him for a moment, nodding. "I love him." Kurt nodded. "Vell, he's a tough one. He'll not go down so easy." X-23 nodded. Her eyes lit up. "Oh! By the way, I found out what my real name is!" Kurt blinked a bit. "Vell? Do not keep me in suspense. Vhas ist es?" X-23 grinned. "Laura." Kurt raised an eyebrow. "And vhere did you find zhis out?" "In the HYDRA facility we were stuck in." "I see." Kurt patted her shoulder. "Congradulations… Laura." Kurt smiled, fangs gleaming, then teleported away. Kurt reappeared with Kitty in her room. "Hello, Katzchen." Kitty smiled. "Hi, Kurt." Kurt looked around, making sure that they were alone, then crawling into bed next to Kitty. Kitty put her head on his chest, he put his arm around her shoulders, tail curling around her thigh. Kitty sighed. "This feels nice, yaknow? I mean… we haven't had any time to relax lately… between the tin can, John and X-23 being abducted…" Kurt smiled a bit. "Her name is Laura, apparently." Kitty's eyes lit up. "She finally found out what her real name was?" Kurt nodded. "It's vondebar, ja?" Kitty nodded. "I'm just happy we finally get some downtime." Kurt nodded, kissing the top of her head, settling in for the night.

* * *


	19. Arrival

(A/N: Yes, finally got the kickstart I needed to get the second to last chapter off the ground. Here we go, folks. Enjoy the ride.)

When Kurt awoke the next day it was in much the same position as he had fallen asleep, one arm wrapped around Kitty's shoulder, his tail coiled around her thigh. Her head was still rested peacefully on his chest. Kurt yawned as quietly as he possibly could and moved as little as possible. Even then, a light tremor ran through him. Luckily this didn't disturb Kitty. Rogue had already woken up, and was no longer in the room, if she had even slept there at all. Kurt felt Kitty stir on his chest. She yawned, stretching her arms across his chest and her legs out behind her. Kurt smiled down at her as her sleepy blue eyes looked up at him. "Guten morgen, katzchen." Kitty giggled. "You too, fuzzy." She leaned up and kissed him softly. "How'd ya sleep?" Kurt sighed. "How else vould I sleep but amazingly vizh an angel beside me?" Kitty made an 'awww' noise. She yawned again, getting up and stretching hard. "Oooh… that feels good." Kurt let his tail uncoil from around her leg as she did this, stretching and yawning himself. "So, it's Saturday. Vhat do you vant to do today?" Kitty shrugged. "I'm up for whatever you are."

"Zhat doesn't help us."

"Like, I know, but I had ta say it, yaknow?'

"No, I don't know."

"Oh, please. I know you know."

"But maybe I'm tricking you into zhinking that I know because I know you know I know."

"Well maybe I know you know I know you know I know. That you know."

"Aye carumba! Bet you zhought I vas going to say somezhing cute in german."

Kitty giggled, tossing a pillow at him. "Your logic is infathomable." "You love me for it." Kitty sighed. Kurt chuckled to himself and rolled out of the bed. "Vell, first off ve'd better get downstairs. If ve miss anozher danger room session Logan vill skin us alive." Kitty nodded solemnly. "You can say that again." "If ve miss anozher-" His sentence was cut short by Kitty tossing another pillow in his face with a giggle. "Oh, shut up." Kurt tossed the pillow to the bed. He shrugged, turning to the door. "Vell, ve'd better get downstairs, anyhow." Kitty came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "Go for it, fuzzy." Kurt 'bamf'ed them to the subbasements. Scott looked up as they appeared. "Hey, guys. Ready for our session?" Kurt nodded. Kitty saluted. "Like, yea we are. Rested and reporting for duty!" Kurt grinned. Scott sighed. "Good, because Logan says that this time he's 'not going easy on us'. Kurt frowned. He had been going easy on them?

* * *

As it turned out, unfortunately, he had been going easy on them. The X-Men barely won the challenge, and the only two of them walked away without injury… Gambit and X-23. Kurt frowned. He hadn't been seeing a whole lot of Gambit or his foster sister. They were always going on missions together with the new mutants, and so it was usually just John, Laura, Scott, Jean, Logan, Ororo, Mr. McCoy, kitty and himself around the mansion. Kurt missed Rogue. He knew she would be sorry she missed seeing Evan. Evan had joined them for their danger room session, but the equipment ended up not working so well against him and his advanced evolutionary state. After the session was over, the group went their separate ways, as usual, Jean and Scott, Kurt and Kitty (This time Evan was following them.) and John and Laura. Kurt sat down at the kitchen table with a bowl of fruity pebbles. Kitty looked at his choice of food and raised an eyebrow, when Evan sat next to him with the same setup. Kitty rolled her eyes. "You guys are crazy." Kurt looked up at her. "Vhas? Zhey're just fruity pebbles." Kitty sat down next to him with a sandwich. "Ya, but like, it's lunchtime." Kurt made a face. "So? You've never had breakfast for lunch before?" Kitty shook her head. "And I suppose you've never had brinner, either?" Kitty shook her head again. Evan's mouth fell open. "you've never had _brinner?_ What's wrong with you, man?" Kitty sighed exasperatedly. "Like, whatever." Kurt shook his head, eyes wide. "No, not 'vhatever'. You need to try it! You vont be sorry." Kitty threw her hands up. "Fine, I'll try it tonight. Happy now?" Kurt and evan both nodded. "You von't be disappointed."

* * *

Kitty loved brinner. _Loved _it. She sat back with a sigh, blinking. "Like, why didn't anyone ever tell me it was this good?" Kurt gave her the answer she was expecting. "Vhat did I tell you? I told you!" Kitty giggled, leaning over and kissing him lightly. "Oh, shut up, fuzzy." Kurt was, actually, quiet after that. They sat around watching TV for a while after that. Kitty put her head on Kurts, running her hand over his tail lightly as it moved about. "Hey, Kurt?" Kurt turned his head towards her. "Vhas?" "What do you think they did to John and Laura while they were in HYDRA?" From the look on his face Kitty could tell that he had been waiting for this question. "I do not know, Keety. All I know is zhat it vas insignifigant. My guess is zhat zhey escaped before zhey vere experimented on." Kitty nodded. "That makes sense…" She still wondered though. Why would HYDRA go after them even after she'd proven she could escape anything they threw at her? And why bring John? Too many questions. Kitty sighed. "I just have… so many questions, yaknow?" Kurt nodded. "Everyone vonders." Kitty sighed. She lay her head on Kurt's chest and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

John was sleeping on the couch. He looked exhausted, and Laura didn't blame him. Beast had said he had lost a quarter of his blood, the fact that he was still walking amazed him. Laura curled up on the couch next to him, putting her head lightly on his chest. "Oh John. I'm so sorry…" She sighed a bit, closing her eyes and listening to the beat of his heart. Laura had smelled Donald Peirce in the building. She knew John would want to find him, but there would be a fight and she knew that they wouldn't be able to stop him. What she was wondering was how he was still alive. Laura vaguely remembered when he had exploded… she'd been borderline unconscious when it happened. She sighed again. John blinked a bit. "Hnn?" Laura felt his arm slide over her shoulders. "Hi, Laur." He said sleepily. The bandage on his arm rasped over her shirt. She still felt guilty. "Hi, Johnny." She smiled up at him. His eyes flickered between colors. He frowned. "What's wrong?" Laura hated how he could do that. "Nothing." She leaned up and kissed him gently on the lips. "You don't need to worry about it." John sighed. "All right." He put his forehead to hers. That was when Professor X sent out an alert. _**X-Men! Suit up. Cereboro has found a new mutant.**_

* * *

_**  
**_

Salvador Whiler kept his ear to the door of the safe. His tongue was poking out of the corner of his mouth. The streetlight filtered through the windows of the bank. But even then, the young man had no shadow. Where his shadow should have been there was merely a view of how the shadows would look if he wasn't there. "Hurry up in there." Sal growled. "We're runnin' outta time." Suddenly, a large shadow swung outwards. The safe door's shadow opened, and out walked Sal's shadow, holding bags of money. The shadow set them down, and a whisper of wind whirled through the bank. Sal reached down and looked at the ceiling, and when he looked down, his hands held the bags of money his shadow had pulled from the safe. "Because, Shadey boy, if the safe looks like it wasn't broken in to then it'll look mighty suspicious. I don' know bout you, but I'd rather we listen to the boss when she said 'make it look human'. So, we make it look human." The lock clicked. "Ah, there we go. Now let's skedaddle before the cameras come back online." The boy stood, and his shadow took its usual place, as a normal looking shadow.

* * *

John raised an eyebrow. "Look, Scott, I know that you're anxious. But your making no sense at _all, _whatsoever. Speak slower." Scott growled. Sometimes it took a while to get him to understand. It wasn't that he wasn't smart. He just wasn't used to the way everyone talked about this stuff yet. "Ok, one more time. This kid can use his shadow to interact with other things as if it were actually him. For example, if his shadow opened the shadow of a door, the door would open. If his shadow hit yours, you would feel the blow. It's confusing I know, but it's all we have to go on." John nodded. "I think I get it now." Scott sighed a bit. "Good." Scott turned to the scene ahead of them in time to see their target sneaking out of the vault. His heart fluttered. All right… time to go to work. The boy looked up and saw the X-Jet, then a mix of surprise and awe washed over his features. Then his shadow shuddered and raced towards the X-Jet. Scott jerked the plane left, avoiding it. He nearly slid sideways out of his seat as he did. The plane swung around as it slid into shadow, and Scott yelped. The plane was pulled to the ground, and the boy went running off in the other direction with the bags of money. Scott staggered out of the plane. "X-Men: Stop him!" John, Kurt and Evan went racing by him, followed by Kitty and Jean. Scott ran after them. John and Kurt were swiftly gaining on the kid. John leapt up onto the side of a building, using it like a kickoff point and propelling himself in front of the boy. As he did, he rolled into shadow. John's head snapped back as if he were being punched, and then he tripped, rose into the air, and flew into a side alley. Scott blinked. This kid was stronger then they thought. He ran after the kid, along with Jean and the others. When Kurt stepped into the shadows, however, he nearly vanished. Everyone stopped, turning to where he had just been. "Kurt?" Kitty called out. Kurt tapped her shoulder, making her jump. "Vhat are you jumping about? I'm right here!" Kitty frowned. "Kurt, your like, almost invisible." Scott nodded. "Yeah, Kurt, your fur is blending you in." A flash of white teeth appeared. "Vondebar! Zhat's totally vicked! But enough vasting time, let's go get zhat creep!" And with that they were off again. Scott was almost on top of the kid when a flash of silver slammed into him, knocking him down. Scott yelped. As he fell, he glimpsed Evan growing spikes, and Quicksilver running behind them. He got to his feet. There was no way in _hell _those brotherhood creeps were getting the drop on them again. Blob's telltale bull roar sounded off to his left. Scott rolled back, barely dodging the behemoth. "I am SO through with you morons!" He put his hand on his visor and was about to fire a full blast at Blob when an invisible hand closed around his. His visor was jammed forcibly against his face, and Scott wrenched free to see their target running towards the Brotherhood jeep. "Son of a-!" Quicksilver slammed Scott to the ground, sped to the jeep, and then the Brotherhood was gone as quickly as they arrived.

* * *

That night, a horrible storm engulfed Bayville. Thunder and lightning cleaved the sky and set the clouds ablaze with light. The X-Men had nothing to do but wallow in their second failure. Scott was taking it the hardest, John knew. "Twice. We lost to them twice! How could we let this happen?" John sighed, leaning back and pulling Laura a little tighter to him. "Relax Scott… it's not your fault, the little prick was with them from the beginning." Jean patted his arm consolingly as she said this. Kurt was looking at the ceiling, his tail twitching irritably. Evan looked at him. "What's eating you, man?" He asked, his own mouth full of a sandwich. Kurt grimaced. "Somezhing feels… wrong, like zhere's somezhing about to happen." Evan shrugged. "'oo w'rry thoo muth. Embryfring'll be fine." He swallowed his mouthfull of sandwich. "I mean, everything'll be fine, man." Kitty made a face and wiped the bread spew off her shoulder. "Disgusting." Evan laughed. John smiled a bit, but… "You feel it too, John?" Laura's voice startled him out of his reverie. John nodded. "Yeah, I do." Laura opened her mouth, probably to soothe his worries, when there was a loud banging at the door. Amara, Bobby, Sam and Rahne, who were watching a horror flick in the other room, screamed. They raced into the room and hid under the table. John raised an eyebrow. "Get outta there. Please, what is it with you guys? Someone knocks on the door and you have a spaz? I'll get it." Rahne crept out from under the table in her wolf form. Bobby was shivering. Amara followed him, looking slightly pink. "Sorry, Johnny." John waved a hand as he limped to the door. Amara frowned. "Your limp is worse." John shrugged. "It's always worse in storms like this." Amara giggled. "That's such an old man thing to say." John made a face. He pulled open the door, expecting maybe a pizza man or something. What he saw made both him and Amara's jaws drop. Standing in the doorway, supporting an unconscious Rogue, stood a very disheveled Gambit. "They're coming…"

* * *

(Oohoho! The last chapter's gonna send this story out with a 'bang'! Stick around folks, one more chapter, then the sequel, X-Men: Evolution, Hellfire will be out on everywhere! Anxious for the sequel? I know I am!)


	20. Run

(A/N: Last bloody chapter… holy fudge. To all those of you reading, thank you SO much for your support and * ahem *… REVIEWS. HINT F'IN' HINT. Thanks to those of you who are reviewing my story, I appreciate it. Why do I require reviews? Because I'm off of my rocker. ;D. Well, enjoy the VERY LAST chapter of X-Men: Evolution, Arrival. And, I know I've said it enough, but look for the sequel, X-Men: Evolution, Hellfire.)

* * *

John barely caught Rogue and Gambit as he fell forwards and slumped into the house. John dragged them into the living room, the others hot on his heels. All John heard was 'oh my god, what happened?' and 'Are they ok?' and 'who did this?' as if he knew. Eventually it got too much for John to handle and he left the room. He stood in the open doorway and let the rain leave small pricks of water on his face. He inhaled and exhaled deeply. He tried to rid his mind of the horrible state the two of them were in. As soon as Kurt had seen Rogue, his face had become horrified, and he had raced to her side. John figured that he was probably still there. He opened his eyes and ran his hands over his head. He shivered slightly when his fingers brushed over the steel plate over his eye. "Maaan… I guess I'm just becoming a basket case." A pair of arms wrapped around his chest, and John felt Laura lay her head on his back. "John, what's going on?" John sighed, putting his hands over hers. "I dunno, Laur… it's a little crazy now." He closed his eye again. Laura's hand reached up and touched where his left eye had been. "Does it ever hurt, John?" John closed his eyes. "Yeah, sometimes." Laura's hand withdrew from his face. "I'm not who you should be worried about right now, you know." Laura smiled when he turned around. John gave her a gentle kiss, and moved back into the other room. Rogue was passed out on the couch. Her clothes were fairly torn, but she seemed to have been healed. Probably Logan and some bare skin contact. A small smile decorated her lips, and she was curled up loosely on the couch, along with an equally asleep Kurt who was so close to falling off the back of the couch John wondered if he might just fall later. A thin blanket was pulled up to her waist but had partially fallen off the couch. Kurt's tail rested on her lower back, as if reminding her she wasn't alone. John smirked. "Well, this is such a nice brother-sister kodak moment." Kitty ran into the room with a camera. "This is too good to miss out on."

* * *

When Kurt woke up later, on the couch (He estimated a half hour had passed) Kitty was sitting next to him lightly running her hand over the soft fur of his tail. Kurt shivered involuntarily, and his tail twitched. Kitty looked over at him and smiled. "Hi, fuzzy." Kurt sat up and kissed her. "Guten nacht, mein Katzchen." Kitty giggled a bit, putting her arms around his neck. "How'd you sleep?" Kurt shrugged. "Vell enough, I suppose. Vhere are Rogue and Gambit?" Kitty shrugged. "Probably went to sleep." Kurt nodded. Made sense. The mansion was probably still freaking out about their cryptic warning. Kurt wasn't so worried. John may have misheard them. He turned on the TV. A newscast was playing. "… hundreds of the giant metal creatures headed up towards Bayville." Kitty gasped. "EVERYONE! GET IN HERE!" Kurt shushed her. "All we know about where they're going is this audio clip." A button was pressed off screen and an audio clip played. 'Heeeeey, X-men! Guess who-o? Well, anyways. You guys have an hour to give yourselves up or.. well, one sentinel was a disaster… try twenty on for size? Oh, yeah… we have Professor X also. We're so good it scares me sometimes. Nyaha. See you soon." His last three words held a tone of menace. Kurt hissed. "Zhat bastard re-initiated zhe Sentinel program!" Kitty put a hand to her mouth. "They have the professor? How?" The screen flickered from Donald's laughter to twenty dark shapes moving towards Bayville. These sentinels were regular sized, and to top that off they were like the one that had attacked them by the docks, bigger of course. By this time everyone had gotten to the room. Bobby was the first to find his voice. "…what do we do now?" He croaked. John crossed his arms. "That um… Magneto guy has a institute in San Francisco right?" Scott nodded slowly. "Yeah… we could go there." Berzerker frowned. "What do we do with all our stuff? Does the X-Jet have room for all of us AND our luggage?" Jean nodded. "I'm sure it does." Logan ran into the room. "No time." He growled. "We have to get outta here, and now." Kurt frowned. "Vhas?" Logan turned off the TV and ran into the kitchen, pointing to see twenty dark shapes permeate the sky. Kurt's eyes widened. There was no time left to run…

* * *

Sentinel 06261. Donald spun around in his spinny chair boredly as he monitored the sentinels. "Oh shawwwwny!?" He kept spinning. Spinny chair, spinny chair. Whenever he made a complete circle it squeaked. So Donald made his chair squeak. Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. "Squeak squeak squeak squeak… squeeksqueeksqueeksqueekSQUEEEEEEEEAK!" As he said this he started spinning faster and faster untill the chair toppled and Donald was thrown to the ground. He found himself looking up at Shaw and James, who had been renamed Trevor Fitzroy to better suit his change of person. Trevor sneered down at him, crossing his arms. "You dolt. Do you have any conscious thoughts at all?" Donald rolled to his feet. "No. I thought I did once but it turned out it was just some remorse. Needless to say I shut off THAT emotion as soon as I discovered I had it." He grinned coldly at the newcomer. Donald plopped back in his chair, making it squeak again. Trevor was obviously disconcerted now. Shaw shook his head slowly. "Donald, ETA to their mansion?" Donald shrugged. "They're already aiming weapons. Shall I give the order?" Shaw waved a hand. "We have the professor. Go ahead, do what you want." Donald grinned. This was his favorite part. He flipped open the little glass cover for the big red button. "KA-BOOOM!" He cackled and slammed his hand down on the button. The sentinels unleashed a special payload of short range high detonation missiles. Donald cackled. "Squeak squeak squeak BOOM!" The screen turned white for a moment. When it cleared, the X-Mansion was gone.

* * *

Kurt felt the ground tremble overhead and cringed. There went the mansion. Kitty hid her face in his shoulder. "It's gone again, Kurt… We barely even got it back and it's gone again." Kurt knew how she felt. "Ve'll be ok, Katzchen." Kurt murmured. He noticed that the others had stopped as well, eyes closed or faces downturned. "But… without the professor, Kurt?" Kurt closed his eyes for a moment. "Ve've gotten on vell enough wizhout him before." Kitty nodded solemnly. Scott spoke up. "We can't stop here. We've got to keep moving." Amara made a face. "Couldn't we at least travel above ground? There's rats in here." Bobby grumbled. "And poop. And oh look! A rat riding ON a piece of poop." John sighed from somewhere ahead of them. "Shut up, Bobby, it's just a storm drain. There's no 'poop' down here." He ducked around a column of water coming down from above. It was still pouring outside. John made a face. "Scott, where are we going, anyways?" Kurt thought he knew, and his thoughts were answered when Scott replied. "The old MRD center… where the first Sentinel was. We're gonna hide there for a while." John frowned, but said nothing more, even though Kurt could sense his wanting to. Kitty had to keep her hand on his arm for fear of losing him, as his ability to blend in with the shadows rendered him nigh invisible. They trekked through the storm drains under Bayville for hours, and day faded away into night. The bright white flashes of lightning and the light grey tone of the little light that came through the clouds faded to the orange glow of the streetlights outside. Kurt clung tighter to Kitty when the night fully engulfed them; the light had faded to the point where his outline could not be seen against the blackness that surrounded them. Ahead, Kurt could see Berzerker and Amara using their powers to light up the drain. Half of the space ahead of them was lit up by a flickering blue light, half by a wavering orange and red one. Kurt blinked. "Keety, perhaps ve should move up to zhe front?" Kitty nodded her agreement. Kurt turned to look balefully into the abyss of blackness behind him. What lay behind them? Nothing but a ruined home. And so with that parting thought he moved into the light. He shuddered a bit as the heat ran over his fur and he saw Kitty do the same. It had been colder back there than he thought. Kurt walked up next to Scott, leaving Kitty to confer with Laura. "How much longer, Scott?" Kurt asked. Scott shook his head. "I don't know, Kurt. I think we're-" His words were cut off as he looked upon the great steel door that stood in front of him. Kurt blinked. "Zhat vas very gut, Scott. Perhaps you should qvestion vhen ve vill be getting food?" He cracked a wry smile. Scott shrugged. "I don't know how we're gonna get this open though." He murmured. Logan pushed past him and unsheathed his claws. "Laura, wanna help me with this?" Amara stepped forwards. "Um… wouldn't it be easier if I just melted a whole in the door?" She asked. John yawned from somewhere near the back of the group. Scott looked at Logan. "She has a point, Logan." Logan grumbled something and stepped away. Laura shrugged and stepped to the other side. Amara put her hands on the door and closed her eyes, changing her form. The sudden light lit up the area much better. The door was sentinel-sized, and all around debris littered the floor. Kurt frowned, putting his arm back around Kitty. Was this where they were testing the Sentinel? Logan growled. "Damn sentinel almost took my head off here." Kurt blinked. It was like his thoughts were being answered. He looked at kitty for a moment, envisioning her making him a sandwich. Kitty looked back at him with one eyebrow raised. "Like, get it yourself." Kurt's bemused expression was enough to make her giggle. A few moments later there was a hole in the door big enough for everyone to walk through. He and John were the last ones in. He noticed John hesitate. "Vhat are you planning to do, John?" He asked. John looked at him. Kurt noticed that even in the half light, his iridescent eye glittered like an abalone shell. "I'm gonna block the entrance… there's a slim chance they might think we're here. I don't want to take the chance of being caught." Kurt shrugged and walked inside, looking around. "Anyone find zhe troops qvarters yet?" He asked into the comm clip at his shoulder. Jeans voice was the first to bleed through the static. "No… but there's a kitchen here, fully stocked too." Bobby made a releived sound. Kurt chuckled a bit. "Vell, at least ve may have midnight snacks." Kitty's giggle broke over the comm next. Then Logan's low growl of a voice sounded over the comm, even as Kurt began teleporting around the base. "Keep it quiet, everyone. If you haven't found the sleeping quarters then keep _radio silence. _That means you, Drake." Several giggles from Jean, Kitty, Amara, Rahne, and Laura. Kurt sighed, then returned to teleporting across the base. He stopped when he found what he had been looking for, a room with several rows of bunks. The wall in front of it had been blown away by something, and the result was an entrance about the size of a cave. "Found it." Kurt said. "Zhird floor, fifzh room down zhe left." He grinned. "And it looks like MRD treated it's troops vell." Kitty giggled. "That's the same floor as the kitchen." Jean said. Nobody spoke after that untill they reached the bunks. A lot of chatter ensued as everyone got ready for bed, which meant mainly just putting blankets down, as nobody wanted to get out of their uniforms. Nobody really slept well, most stayed awake. They took turns as lookouts. Kurt took the first watch, and John joined him. They sat around the fire they had made amongst the debris, as the electricity had been cut off. Kurt was staring mesmerizedly into the fire. He barely noticed John's voice talking to him. He shook himself and looked up when he spoke. "Hnn?" John chuckled. "I said, you should get some sleep. I can keep watch. Don't worry, I've never been one much for sleeping." Kurt noticed for the first time that his guitar was strapped to his back. Kurt frowned. "Vhat about your amp?" John chuckled. "This is an acoustic guitar modified to work like an electric guitar." Kurt gave a devilish grin. "Vhy don't you play a leetle tune for us? Vould certainly help us sleep." Rahne giggled. "Yea, John. Give us a good- night song." There were murmurs of agreement sewn among the others. John held up his steel- grey colored hands. "Ok, ok. Chill, I'll play a song." Kurt smiled a bit, getting up and sitting on Kitty's bed. John pulled out his guitar and looked at it for a moment. Then he smiled into the fire.

* * *

John checked that all the strings were tuned. Then he pulled his pick out of his pocket and took a long breath. He felt everyone's eyes on him. He strummed a single chord. "Hey Juuude…" The opening part was played by a piano in this song, but the notes were the same, so John only hit each note once. Why? Because it made it sound good. "Don't make it baaad… Take a sad soooong, and make it better…" He looked up at the ground, high above them now. "Remember… to let her into your heart. Then you can sta-art, to make it better." He heard Rahne slap against the springs of the mattress, producing a strangely tambourine like sound as they jingled. "Hey, Jude… Don't be a-fraid. You were made tooooo go out and get her. The minute you let her under your skin, then you begi-in, to make it better." Now a few of them were adding their voices to his. Apparently they knew the song. John smiled a bit. "And any time you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain, don't carry the world up on your shoul-ders." He could even hear Bobby tapping along with the beat. "Be cause you know that it's the fool, who plays, it cool, by making his world, a lit-tle cold-er." Now everyone's voice rose to add to his. "na-na na-na, na, nana, na!" Their voices faded away, but now almost everyone was tapping away at the bedsprings, making a slight rhythm affect. "Hey Jude, Don't let me down, You have found her, now go and get her." Everyone's voices contributed here as well. "Remember, to let her into your heart. Then you can sta-art, to make it, better." Memories of his first encounters with everyone rose unbidden to his mind. He realized how moved he was by how these people had accepted him into their lives. Especially Laura. He could hear that by the quaverings of some of their voices, Amara, Laura, even Bobby and Scott a little, that they were touched by his song, maybe on the verge of crying. _Were they really going to cry over this song? _Well, he felt tears streaming down his face as well. So apparently they were. And he was part of them. They were a family. "So let it out, and let it in, hey jude, begin, you're waiting for someone to preform with." He smiled abit. Letting his voice rise like it would in the song, he added some extra inflection to the next words as everyone provided the 'aaaaah, aaaaaaah, aaaaah" to go along with his words. "And don't you _know _that it's just you, hey Jude, you'll do, the movement you need is on your shoulder… Na-na na-na, na, nana, na!" Then he started repeating the first lines of the song, and everyone sang with him, some voices quavering dangerously. A tear fell onto the ground, and he ignored it. "Hey Jude, don't make it baaaad, take a sad sooong, and make it better… remember, to let her under your skin, so you can be-gi-in, to make it better, bet-ter, bet-ter, bet-ter, bet-ter, oh!" Everyone sang this part but him, as he strummed out a makeshift guitar lead. "Na, na, na, nanana naaaa, nanana naaaaa, hey juuuude…" After that, everyone dissolved into a quiet, peacefull silence that masked many snifflings and wiping noises. John put his guitar away. "Get some sleep, guys. I'll keep watch."

* * *

Kurt cracked open a bleary eye as Kitty was frantically shaking him to wake him up. It was light, and there was a low rumbling outside in the main tunnel. He sat bolt upright. "Keety, vhat's going on?!" Logan ran past. "They found us. At least one sentinel did." Kurt was on his feet in seconds. How?" Kurt saw John hiding with his back pressed against the wall. The others were as out of sight as they could be. Rahne was by his bed, hiding behind a bed that had been turned on it's side. "Kurt, how're we gon' t' get outta here?" She asked scaredly, her scottish accent permeating her voice. Kurt looked at Kitty and Scott. Kurt nodded to Scott. "A decoy is how." Scott sighed. "Yeah." Kitty seemed to realize what they were driving towards. "Wha-… no! You can't! It'll kill him!" Kitty grabbed a hold of Kurt's arm. John snuck over. "Kurt knows the risks. He won't get caught." John said this with a note of affirmation, as if telling Kurt that's how it would go. Kitty glared at him. Kurt put a tridactyl hand over hers. "Please, Katzchen, relax. I'll be back to lavish you vith attention as soon as zhat zhing is gone, ok?" Kitty looked pleadingly into his eyes. Then she seemed to realize they had few other options. She exhaled sharply. "Ok… ok. But be careful." She hugged him, kissed him lightly and put her forehead to his. "Just… be careful, ok?" Kurt grinned. "Please, Keety. Vhen am I ever not careful?" With that he 'bamfed'. He reappeared over the Sentinel, hoping that Logan had found what he was looking for. "Hey chrome dome!" He called down to the robot. It's head tilted back. A low voice emnated from the mouth that had been added onto it to make it look more human. "Mutant life sign detected. Termination commensing." It raised one of its arms, which turned into a multitude of cannons. It fired at Kurt. Kurt teleported. Unfortunately he had a feeling this dance was going to last a while. "As you americans say… Neiner neiner neiner!" He blew a raspberry at the sentinel, putting his thumbs behind his ears and wiggling his fingers at the sentinel. As it fired a volley of missiles he dissapeared again. This time he reappeared on it's back, hammering at one of the plates covering the wires he knew controlled it. The sentinel emitted an electric shock that Kurt neither anticipated nor had the time to avoid, and he gave a shreik and fell from the giant beast. He landed on the ground with a thud, instinctively curled into a ball, gasping as remnants of the electricity raced through his body. Kurt spasmed a bit, feeling the ground tremble beneath him. He looked up at the Sentinel, reaching towards him Kurt closed his eyes and hid his face. There was a grinding screech noise, and Kurt looked up, seeing that the elevator was moving. He and the sentinel were moving downwards. Kurt closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Teleporting vertical distances was difficult for him. Still, beat getting killed by a sentinel. So Kurt ported as high as he could over the sentinel. Kurt reappeared about level with where the others were. Jean kept him floating and lifted him to the balcony, then set him down. Kurt squeezed his eyes shut. Porting vertically felt like he was getting ripped in half. Kurt felt Kitty kneeling next to him, putting her hand delicately on his shoulder. Kurt cracked open an eye and smiled a bit. "Zhe elevator vorked." He croaked. There was a rumble as the doors started to close over the sentinel. The Sentinel, realizing its dilemma, began to fly upwards towards the rapidly shrinking exit. Kurt knew it had no time. It's head and shoulders made it through before there was another horrible grinding noise, and the doors closed on it, pinning it and crushing it. Kurt exhaled releivedly. The sentinel's head twitched about a bit more, then stopped moving. Kurt turned to Scott. "Vhat do ve do now, Scott?"

* * *

"Vhat do ve do now, Scott?" Kurt's voice rang in his ears. Scott looked around. Everyone was looking to him, even Logan. "Agh… why are you asking me?" Jean put a hand on his shoulder. "Because, Scott. You're our leader now." Logan nodded. "Yeah, we need orders bub." Rahne crossed her arms worriedly. "There's no way we're gon't get th' professor back by jus' talkin' about it, Scott." Scott looked at the ground, closing his eyes under his visor. Kurt's hand slid onto his shoulder. "You can do it, Scott." Scott nodded a bit. He could do it. He knew he could. And now, a plan was forming in his mind. "All right. If it's war they want…" Scott looked down at the sentinel, then up at the ceiling of the complex. "Then it's war they'll get…"

END ACT 1

(Wow… Act One is done. Two is on the way, and depending on how many reviews I get for that, the possibility that this might develop into a trilogy… ;) so review! BTW, thank you to Nightcrawler's Shadow for letting me put in a reference to Kodak Moment in here. I DID get her permission, so relax.)


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